


(No) Escape from Reality

by jane_x80



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010), NCIS
Genre: Alternate Universe - Sentinels & Guides, Alternate Universe - Sentinels and Guides Are Known, Episode: s01e02 Ohana (Family), Episode: s09e01 Nature of the Beast, M/M, Sentinel/Guide, Spirit Animals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:54:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 24,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26959120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jane_x80/pseuds/jane_x80
Summary: In a world where Sentinels and Guide are known, children destined to be Sentinels and Guides come online as they go through puberty. Stories of Sentinels and Guides who come online as fully grown adults after experiencing trauma is a myth from before the dawn of time. Unfortunately for Tony, this truth doesn't apply to him and he comes online after he wakes up in a hospital, shot in the chest (thank goodness for Kevlar doing its job), with blood on his hands and no memory of what happened. And of course, the DiNozzo luck causes things to deteriorate with Gibbs and NCIS until he is forced to run far away, to Hawaii. Meanwhile, Sentinel Steve McGarrett is finally home in Hawaii having taken the Governor's offer of his own task force. What will happen when Tony encounters the task force?
Relationships: Anthony DiNozzo/Steve McGarrett
Comments: 149
Kudos: 667
Collections: 2020 NCIS Big Bang, What If? AU Challenge





	1. Chapter One: Tony

**Author's Note:**

> It's time for the 2020 [NCIS Big Bang challenge](https://ncis-bang.livejournal.com/63350.html)! This is my first entry (of two) for the year and this year, ma tres chere amie [Red_Pink_Dots](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Red_Pink_Dots/pseuds/Red_Pink_Dots) 💋💋💋 selected my summary and made the fabulous artwork for it! Go check out her [artwork master post](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26949961) to see her gorgeous work.
> 
> I send a million thank yous to my amazing beta [jesco0307](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jesco0307/pseuds/jesco0307) for all of her work to help me make this story so much better. I can't thank you enough for all your help! ❤️❤️
> 
> Please note that this story is part of the 2020 [NCIS Big Bang challenge](https://ncis-bang.livejournal.com/63350.html) and as this challenge is allowing longer stories to post over two consecutive days this year, I will be exercising this option and will be posting the story on Monday 12 October 2020 and Tuesday 13 October 2020. This story is complete. There are six chapters altogether.
> 
> This story also fulfills [Challenge 20: Sentinel/Guide AU](https://whatif-au.livejournal.com/52863.html) of the [What If Community](https://whatif-au.livejournal.com/) on LiveJournal. In this story, there are no 'dramatic' coming online occurrences. Kids will come online (or not) as they go through puberty and it's just how it is. Kind of like acne and hormone whackiness. So only kids ever come online. Once they're into adulthood and they haven't come online, then they're going to be mundane, and that is just how it is. Except, of course, for Tony 😉
> 
> Please also note that there are spoilers for NCIS s09e01 Nature of the Beast and Hawaii 5-0 s01e02 Ohana. Some of the dialogue in this story I borrowed from the episodes, but I did also change many things, and added to it in order to make this story work the way I wanted it so I won't mark the lines from canon. I will provide a link to the episode transcripts at the end of the story.
> 
> The title of the story comes from Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, although for the purposes of writing this story, I listened more to the [Pentatonix cover](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojRj2JK5oCI) of it. I'll provide a full list of the music I listened to at the end of the story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoilers ahead! For NCIS s09e01 Nature of the Beast. You can check out the [episode transcript here](https://subslikescript.com/series/NCIS-364845/season-9/episode-1-Nature_of_the_Beast).

**Chapter One – Tony**

**_Washington, DC_ **

[](https://i.imgur.com/io2k4ph.png)

Tony had been feeling incredibly _strange_ since he woke up in the hospital, having been shot in the chest and having absolutely no memory of it. Things were fuzzy and he didn’t know what was going on. What was worse was that he had apparently been brought in with blood that was not his own on his hands, and his own service weapon discharged.

He’d apparently shot someone. Possibly a fatal shooting.

But who? And why? And why the hell was there all this pressure on his brain? He just didn’t understand why the hell he couldn’t remember anything, and why there was that feeling of impending doom? There was a bruise the size of Texas on his chest, where the bullet proof vest had stopped him from being the next client on Ducky’s table, but that didn’t explain the fact that his head felt like it was ready to blow up and no one could figure out why.

Gibbs had brought in Doctor Kate’s Sister in to try to fix his stupid brain, because Tony might have killed a person and for the life of him, he couldn’t even remember a thing about it. Rachel Cranston was helping him talk through things, because his _favorite_ thing to do in the world was talking about things that were real and things that he couldn’t deflect with a subject change or pass off as a joke. Cranston didn’t allow him to do that. She was helping him through this because Gibbs needed to know what was going on. But more importantly, _Tony_ needed to know what the hell had happened. He himself needed to understand what had happened to cause him to end up in the hospital with someone else’s blood on his hands, and a bullet in his chest.

He had slowly remembered how the new Secretary of the Navy, Clay Jarvis, had recruited him to go on a mission, one where Gibbs wasn’t his handler, and one where he wasn’t allowed to share any information with the rest of his team. That should have been a hard no for him, given how well that type of restrictions on his mission had ended up for him back during the La Grenouille fiasco. But with Cranston’s help, he had recalled being given a photograph and trying to find someone within NCIS who wasn’t who they seemed to be. He had been tasked to retrieve something from them. A microchip of some sort that had been cut out of a dead NCIS agent’s arm.

Things were coming back in bits and pieces as he worked with Kate’s sister. The guilt that he still bore for Kate’s death – even though he hadn’t been the one to shoot her or even the one to have let Ari go because he had ‘kind eyes’ – was also weighing on his psyche. He still felt the need to apologize to Kate’s sister because he hadn’t even known that it was coming. He hadn’t been able to stop it from happening, and his nightmares still factored being splattered with Kate’s blood and brain matter on the roof of that building, even though it had happened a few years ago now. It felt like an added weight to this whole affair, of literally having the blood of yet another dead agent on his body. Although he had no memory of it this time, which was both a blessing and a curse.

Tony sat on the bed, wearing a crappy hospital gown with a robe thrown over it so at least his ass wasn’t hanging in the breeze, prodding through the fog filled recesses of his mind. He hated therapists and psychologists with a passion, but Cranston was close to OK in his book. She was at times gentle with him, at times, sassy. Working him like the professional that she was. Despite the guilt of Kate’s death coming back to the forefront, Tony was glad that Gibbs had called her, since they had already established kind of a rapport from the other case. It was a good thing that Gibbs hadn’t just gotten some random therapist because typically, therapists tended to be an online Guide. Rachel might be a mundane, but she was naturally empathetic and insightful without that extrasensory claptrap, and Tony was more comfortable working with a mundane than a Guide, because who needed that magical extrasensory empathic abilities poking through his brain and violating his privacy, even if it was for a good cause? Not to mention the fact that he’d always had a natural resistance to Guides – all his life there had been Guides trying to crack his head open for one reason or another, and yet he had always been able to throw up a wall against them and protect himself.

It was part of why he was so good at undercover ops. The big organizations always tended to have a Guide or two with them to feel out unknowns and Tony’s mental wall was easily disguised with other innocuous thoughts that made the Guide feel at ease and throw suspicion off himself. It was no secret that Guides gave Tony the heeby-jeebies. Sentinels didn’t affect him the same way because there was nothing magical or mystical about them – they had heightened senses. They could hear his heartbeat and respiration, see his pupils’ reaction, that sort of thing. It was honest, in a way that Guides weren’t. And he had long since learned to control how he reacted to situations – heartrate, respiration and whatnot – enough to fool a Sentinel if he had to. But Guides, though. It was dishonest what they could do. He didn’t like people knowing anything about him without his express consent, and sure, most Guides couldn’t crack his mental shell to get to the soft insides, but they could do that to other people, and Tony sure as hell hated that kind of disparity in power balance between a Guide and most other people.

Of course, Gibbs knew all of this and that was probably another reason why he had called Kate’s sister before some Guide therapist could be assigned to Tony. A mundane therapist was rare to begin with in this day and age, and a good mundane therapist was always in demand. But Gibbs, being the Sentinel that he was, had always known these things about Tony and how to get the best work out of him. So Tony wasn’t necessarily surprised that he had called Cranston.

Tony had gotten to the point, recounting to Cranston when he had saved EJ Barrett from people shooting at her – at the both of them – on Kiawah Island, and they had run and Tony convinced her to take refuge at Gibbs’, knowing that they needed more help. Felix Wright had been murdered and had also had the same incision in his arm that Levin had had, where a microchip had also been removed. Someone was trying to murder EJ for the chip that she had promised to deliver to the now murdered Felix Wright, and they needed to speak to Cade to figure out what he might have known about their teammate Levin and the microchip in his arm, the one that EJ had been asked to remove in the event that Levin died.

“So that's when you realized you couldn't do this alone?” Cranston asked.

Tony blew out a breath. “I trust these people with my life. Like family,” he laughed softly to himself, scoffing at the term. “No. Not _my_ family. My family is... way less dependable,” he turned to look sightlessly out the window, working hard to ignore the pounding in his head. “You should meet my father sometime. It would explain a lot.”

“I’d like that,” Cranston responded.

Yeah, Tony could imagine that she would have a field day dissecting Tony’s mind if she ever met Senior. He could imagine his father just hitting on her constantly, the way he had done to Ziva and Abby. Senior wouldn’t at all mind meeting this pretty doctor. Not even a little bit.

“ _He’d_ like that too, I think,” Tony couldn’t resist the remark. But then his mind went back to the real topic they were discussing. “NCIS is... part of who I am.” More than the DNA that he had inherited from either of his parents, NCIS had seeped into his very being and changed him in so many ways, both bad and good. Like a real family did, he guessed, if he’d ever had one.

“And yet you took an assignment that resulted in the death of another agent... the very people you say you trust with your life?” Cranston’s words were like a blade, stabbing into the heart of the matter. “You're contradicting yourself.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Tony pursed his lips. Because, you know, you remember Kate? Your sister? Whose death had been the result of one such assignment, although that one hadn’t been as obviously his responsibility alone. For that one, he and many others, including Kate herself, shared and contributed to all of the things that had caused Kate’s death.

Cranston opened her mouth, and Tony didn’t know if she was going to come out with some kind of platitude or say something else that he would be reliving and thinking about for years to come. But a quiet knock and the door opening without warning interrupted her.

“I’m sorry,” the guy, a good looking white guy apologized, laughing uncomfortably for some reason, his cheeks creasing into deep dimples, giving him an air of innocence, even though all of a sudden all of Tony’s instincts began screaming. “Am I interrupting?”

“Who are you?” Cranston demanded.

Tony frowned at the man, wondering what the hell was going on. Everything in Tony somehow knew that this man was dangerous. He had no idea who the guy was, but yet, his gut was churning, and every ounce of Tony wanted him _out_ of his room. Away from Cranston. Hell, out of the hospital. Out of the country. As far away from Cranston and everyone Tony loved as was humanly possible. Tony had to stop himself from trying to unholster his weapon, especially since he wasn’t armed. Shit, he _wasn’t_ armed. He didn’t even have a knife on him this time, fucking hospitals, and protocols, and putting him in a backless gown. Where was a guy supposed to hide a damn knife, even he had one, in all this? Tony didn’t know if he could even try to strangle the man with the tie of his robe, given how unprepared he was for any kind of confrontation.

The man sighed, stepping into the room. “Didn’t Gibbs tell you I was here?” he asked.

He was trying to gain their trust by dropping Gibbs’ name. Anyone who knew Gibbs would know that an in with him would mean an in with the rest of his team, but just saying that Gibbs knew he was there didn’t mean that Gibbs actually knew that he was there, or even if he did that he wanted this man in the room with Tony and Cranston. Call Tony a suspicious fucker, but there it was. Tony had worked for Gibbs far too long to ignore the kind of bad feeling that he was getting from the suspiciously timed entry of this shady as hell motherfucker. Tony had to resist stepping in front of Cranston because that would tip his hand and telegraph his doubts to this unknown quantity. Besides, the bastard was still mostly talking to Cranston and not to him, which annoyed him, because you know, he _was_ standing right there, even if he was in a hospital gown and a robe and he had fuzzy slippers on his feet. That was no way to treat a man when you barge into his hospital room uninvited. You don’t just _ignore_ him.

“I'm Agent Stratton,” the man reached into his jacket pocket and Tony almost put an arm in front of Cranston and pushed her back behind him because what if this man pulled out a weapon of some sort? But luckily he resisted, because the man pulled out an innocuous badge and ID. “FBI. I apologize. I-I didn't realize Agent DiNozzo was with anyone,” he had that slight hesitation in his speech that no doubt endeared him to most people. The dimples, the sweet, shyness that he was projecting. Tony wasn’t buying it for a second, though. Alarm klaxons were blaring internally within him, even if he was doing his best not to show this man any sign of it. “And you are...?”

“His doctor,” Cranston said sternly. The rebuke was unspoken but it was definitely there.

That bad feeling was escalating within Tony and he didn’t know what to do about it.

“Whoa,” Stratton laughed, still projecting that awkward sweetness that Tony was absolutely _not_ falling for. “Look at me, interrupting with a doctor's work. I'm just so glad to see you're alive, Agent DiNozzo.” He stepped forward, holding his hand out to Tony.

It was automatic for the NCIS agent to take the proffered hand despite the fact that he just somehow knew, in his bones, that the man was completely and utterly insincere about being glad to see him alive. “Thanks,” Tony said as they clasped hands.

Tony’s eyes widened when he could _feel_ the malevolent vibes coming from the man when they touched, skin on skin. What the hell? Why could he feel this man’s emotions?

Stratton was still smiling, trying to use those dimples to disarm him, but the headache Tony was experiencing just dialed up to eleven and Tony felt the urge to throw up. This man wanted to harm him. Whatever platitude Tony had meant to say went flying out of his head and he released Stratton’s hand with a gasp, biting down the urge to cry out due to the now excruciating pain in his head.

“Well, you and I can talk later…” Stratton continued. “If…”

“Tony?” Kate’s sister had her hand on Tony’s arm, and he knew that his muscles were tensed. All he could focus on was that Stratton was corrupt and traitorous, and a murderer. Stratton was a _murderer_. But how did Tony know this?

“You killed him…” it was all coming back to him now. He, Cade and EJ had been lured into a dark alleyway, and then Stratton had come and shot them all.

_Stratton_ had been the one to murder Cade. Tony had not been the one to pull the trigger, he wasn’t Cade’s killer. He’d taken a bullet in the chest – yes, protected by the bullet-proof vest but it still hurt like a bitch – and this man, Stratton, had been the one to shoot him as well as Cade and EJ.

“I’m calling Agent Gibbs,” Cranston was saying, and was she crying? Tony couldn’t tell anymore. Why was she crying? And why was Stratton crawling on his hands and knees to the door, gun in his hand, although all of his limbs were trembling, and he was obviously working to escape instead of attempting to shoot Tony and Kate’s sister. Why wasn’t he trying to finish the job he’d started in that alley?

Tony wasn’t grasping why this was happening because his head was about to explode, and he was just feeling too much of… everything.

What the hell was going on?

Cranston’s concern for Tony and her own wariness of Stratton – if that was even his name – and Stratton’s intent to kill Tony were a large chunk of what Tony could feel at that time. He was also internally feeling betrayed. That NCIS, a place that Tony had found to be more dependable for him than his own family, had been breached by this man, and that all of this had been enabled by the Secretary of the Navy. Secretary Jarvis. Jarvis had recruited Tony to carry out this op. And when Tony became suspicious, he’d refused to release Tony from this despicable op and he’d stubbornly refused to believe Tony when he told him that practically everything that they had believed to be true was in fact _un_ true. Like a broken record, Tony had found himself in a situation where he couldn’t make his superior see reason or trust in him and his evidence; and said superior had treated him like a tool and a prop, not like he was a person.

Jarvis, like the late Director Shepard, had deliberately put him in harm’s way. He didn’t care that Tony was an investigator and had dug up the information he’d been tasked to investigate, and like the late Director Shepard, he, too, didn’t like what Tony found out, so he forced his agent to continue with a dangerous op in order to dig out what he wanted to find. Like Jenny, he’d wanted the evidence to back a narrative that he’d already created. He didn’t care that he was putting Tony as well as two other NCIS agents in danger. Three members of NCIS were less important to him than whatever it was he thought he was doing. Three lives, three human beings were less important to Jarvis than what he was pursuing. Which was what exactly?

What the hell was his goal, and why the hell was Tony yet again embroiled in some higher up’s secret agenda? Why was it always Tony who ended up with the short end of the stick? Car being blown up. Accused of murder by a woman he’d loved and arrested by the FBI. Multiple times. And now he’d been shot in the chest with only luck and a good Kevlar vest that allowed him to survive, suspicion on him for murder and this fucking monster of a headache that kept hanging on.

Why was he _always_ the one stupid enough to trust his fucking superiors? When would he ever learn this lesson? Trust should be earned. Tony had broken his own damned rule there.

His fury, bitterness, sadness and utter disappointment radiated out of him in waves that he thought should be visible, because they were overwhelming him and people should _see_ it. Everyone should feel it. His pain was real and everyone should feel it.

Why was it always his fault when shit hit the fan?

Tony heard a scream from far off, and when he focused, he realized that it was coming from him, yet he was powerless to stop himself. He couldn’t see Stratton anywhere, but Kate’s sister was on the floor now, sobbing and what? Why was she bleeding from her nose?

What the fuck was happening?

The door was violently kicked open and Gibbs came charging in, gun out and looking around the room for whatever was attacking, and suddenly, all Tony could feel and absorb into his very being was Gibbs’ intense anger. Gibbs was so _angry_. Why was he feeling all of Gibbs’ anger? Was Gibbs angry at him? He’d fucked up, sure, but surely not so much that Gibbs’ fury towards him would be palpable? It wasn’t like the time he’d taken over the role of team lead while Gibbs took a long ass siesta in Mexico. Tony hadn’t stepped on his toes this time. So why the hell was Gibbs so fucking angry at him?

“DiNozzo!” Gibbs yelled at him.

It was too much. Tony’s head was throbbing with the most intense pain he had ever experienced, Gibbs’ anger was too much to bear, and everything was Tony’s fault. It was always Tony’s fault. Senior had drummed that into his head decades ago.

That strangeness that Tony had woken up with suddenly skyrocketed and he couldn’t physically contain it anymore. He felt as if he were going to explode into a million pieces.

“Snap out of it!” Gibbs yelled again, and Tony could feel the intensity of Gibbs’ burning anger increase along with a healthy dose of concern. “ _DiNozzo!_ ”

And then, as if he were some kind of damsel in distress, an overwhelming blackness engulfed Tony’s mind, his eyes rolled back into his head, and he was barely even breathing when his body crumpled onto the floor.


	2. Chapter Two: Steve

**Chapter Two – Steve**

**_Honolulu, Hawaii_ **

[](https://i.imgur.com/io2k4ph.png)

As usual, Steve started his day with a long morning swim while Sundance, the Sentinel’s hawk spirit animal, flew above him, keeping an eye out and ensuring that Steve was undisturbed as he swam. Afterwards, Steve sat at the kitchen table in his childhood home, listening to a recording of his father speaking to himself. Sundance, in all his feathery glory, perched on the back of his chair, messing his hair and nipping at his ear with his beak, trying to make him not feel so sad as he listened to his dead father’s voice.

The recording was a kind of journal, if you will, where he talked about the price of being a cop, his regret about losing his children after losing his wife. Parts of it had been heartbreaking, and Steve wished that he could have spoken to his father one last time to let him know that even though their relationship had been strained ever since he had been sent away so abruptly, he had always known that his dad was proud of him. _Always_. And he’d always tried to live his life in a way that he thought would have made his father proud. John McGarrett had been the yardstick by which Steve measured everyone, himself included. Were they decent or not decent, as compared to John. His father had been a good man, and one who’d tried to do his best. Steve had always known that. Had never doubted that, despite the breakdown of their relationship.

Steve didn’t know what the reasons were that had forced John to send both him and his little sister Mary away when he was a teenager and he was probably never going to know these reasons now that John was dead, but whatever they might have been, Steve knew that his father had thought it imperative that he and Mary be removed from Hawaii. Whatever those reasons might have been, they had been important to John and, now that Steve was no longer the hotheaded teenager that he had once been – he ignored the little voice in his head that sounded suspiciously like Danny Williams’ voice that said that he was now a hotheaded adult – he could see how his father must have been spooked by something. Something had happened that had scared him enough that he feared for his children’s safety, and given that he was a cop, there was no way that he himself was going to turn tail and run. So, he had stayed to stand his ground, but he had also removed his children from whatever it was that was threatening them.

This had happened when Steve was fifteen. He was going through puberty, and like all of the other children who were destined to come online, he’d done so with all of the usual growing pains associated with both puberty and coming online. He’d become a Sentinel like his mother had been. So, he had been able to clearly hear the lie in John’s voice when he’d said that everything was all right. Everything hadn’t been all right, and Steve could tell that John had been fearful. But he had been powerless to do anything, even though he was no longer a little kid. Even though he had become a Sentinel.

He hadn’t reacted well to being exiled from his home and his father. He could admit that now. And he’d taken it out on his father. The strain on their relationship had mostly been on his side of things. He had taken it as a betrayal that his father would send him away rather than allow him to stand and fight with him. No matter that he had only been fifteen and completely untrained and that he had had no business fighting against anything that had frightened his father, a seasoned police detective. He could clearly see that now that he was an adult, and he wished that he had not been as obdurate about making up with his father before it was too late.

Steve hoped that by listening to these tapes that his father had made, he would learn why it had been so important to get both him and Mary off the island for their own good. He wanted to understand his father, and he wished that he had made the time to clear the air between them before Victor Hesse got his hands on him. That Steve had been the one to ultimately lead a terrorist straight home to Hawaii and his father had been murdered because of him would be a burden and a guilt that would never be expunged from Steve’s conscience. Back then, John had been afraid of something happening to his children, something that was probably connected to the dangerous work that a policeman did. So afraid that it would spill into his family life that he’d sent his children away to ensure that they were safe. John had survived whatever that was, even if he never brought his kids back home. But now, it was Steve’s Navy SEAL service that had brought death to their house in Honolulu. His father had died because of Steve’s job. He hadn’t taken adequate steps to protect his family, his father. There would never be forgiveness for Steve for that.

He'd been so lost in thought that Danny had been able to walk right into his house and take him by surprise, something unusual for a Sentinel. Sundance had disappeared, and Steve hadn’t really noticed it, until the front door opened and closed, and Danny was talking to him. But although they had bickered about Danny walking into someone’s house without knocking – even though he claimed that he had knocked and thought he saw Steve nodding at him, whatever, Danno – Steve had been glad of the interruption. His thoughts had been turning dark, and the thing about Danny was that he complained so much about just about everything that it thoroughly amused Steve and lifted his spirits. It brought out the big brother in him, the one that used to tease poor Mary mercilessly, and Danny’s well-meaning and well verbalized complaints compelled Steve to play even more into what Danny thought of him. He was supposed to be a tough as nails, obsessive guy, mission over men, success above all else Navy SEAL, and in all honesty, it really was a big part of who Steve was, so it wasn’t in any way a hardship. But he really wasn’t that much of a caveman as he liked for Danny to think, but Danny’s rants were so damned entertaining that he couldn’t help but exaggerate it a little just to get a rise out of him.

Like many Sentinels, that indefinable quality that was most easily understood as a core of protectiveness and duty, was a huge part of why he had chosen to serve his country. Yes, it was a stereotype to say that Sentinels tended to end up in professions like law enforcement or the military, but for Steve, since he hadn’t been allowed to come home to Hawaii and become a cop like his father, he’d chosen instead to join the Navy and ended up becoming a SEAL. The strong ties of SEALs to the water had been a big pull, because it made him feel closer to his Hawaiian upbringing and roots. But the need to serve had not been a purely Sentinel instinct. It had been because he had looked up to his father who had been a Guide and not a Sentinel. Steve had wanted to be just like him. He’d wanted to become a Honolulu PD officer for about as long as he could remember and his father had not only discouraged him from it but had actively derailed that by sending him away and keeping him away from Hawaii. Becoming a SEAL had been a different way of accomplishing his original ambition.

But now, in an ironic twist, Steve was back in Honolulu working on a special task force for the governor of Hawaii, and technically he was now kind of a member of Honolulu PD, even though this outcome had been against John McGarrett’s wishes. The reason Steve had left the Navy for the task force was because he had been hunting Victor Hesse, the man who had murdered John. If Steve was one for introspection, he would’ve had some Shakespearean quotes he could whip out about fate, but luckily for everyone, Steve wasn’t one for introspection or Shakespeare or quotes, so there.

“Hey!” Danny was thwapping him on the arm with a malasada crumb filled hand. “Are you zoning or something?”

“No,” Steve rolled his eyes. Zoning. Hah. As if a SEAL had the luxury of zoning out at the drop of a hat. That’s how you get dead in the field. He was just woolgathering, lost in thought. “Just thinking. And for the love of god, don’t get crumbs on my stuff.”

Danny made mocking noises as he brushed the malasada crumbs off his shirt and onto Steve’s kitchen table. Interestingly, it was this, among other things, that made Danny both annoying and endearing. Less than twenty percent of children came online as a Sentinel or a Guide, and Danny was one of the many who fell in the majority eighty percent of the population who was a mundane. But instead of treating Steve like some kind of delicate flower because he was a Sentinel and Sentinels’ senses were supposed to be overly sensitive, Danny treated Steve like he was a normal person. And Steve liked that. That was how they were treated in the SEALs – nobody was ever mollycoddled, Sentinel or not. Coming back into civilian life, honestly, that was the thing that Steve hated the most. That suddenly, being an online Sentinel was a reason for people to give him special treatment. As if he would break if he ate spicy food or drank anything with caffeine in it. That stereotype was absolutely something Steve hated. How was anyone supposed to eat sushi without proper wasabi? And if anyone ever stood between him and coffee, they’d see what an angry online Sentinel would look like and it would probably be the last time they ever did such a stupid thing.

“I’m guessing you haven’t really heard a word that I said?” Danny complained.

“No. But, how’s that different from any other day?” Steve grinned.

“Don’t make me wipe my hand on your shirt, you heathen,” Danny snorted. “ _Anyway_ , I was saying that before we head into the office, I need to make a stop and since I’m your ride to the office, you’re coming with me.”

“Getting another pink bunny for Grace?” Steve asked.

“Nah, actually,” Danny pursed his lips. “An old buddy of mine that I used to work with back in Jersey…”

“A cop?”

“Yeah, really great detective. He called to ask me for a favor.”

“Didn’t think you were a do me a favor kind of guy.”

“Not usually, but this guy, I owe him,” Danny’s eyes were serious now. “I owe him my life, twice over.”

Steve nodded, becoming serious too. This kind of loyalty, he understood. There were people like that that he would do a favor for as well if they called, no questions asked. “What do we need to do?” he asked.

Danny gave him a grateful smile. “I have to stop by a hotel and look in on my friend’s old buddy. He’s had a rough time and came out here to… recover, I guess?”

“And you know this other guy?”

“Nope,” Danny shook his head. “But he and my friend worked together on the Philly PD back before he transferred to Newark, and apparently the guy saved my friend’s life once or twice. So, it’s kind of like a daisy chain of IOUs. My friend says this guy is in a really bad way now. He’s been holed up here on the island for a few weeks, and he pretty much hasn’t left his hotel room.”

“OK,” Steve grabbed his keys and phone and started walking towards the front door. He could see one of his SEAL teammates holing up in some backwater motel, trying not to let PTSD get the better of them or allow themselves to accidentally hurt their families. “So where is this guy holed up? And what is he recovering from?”

“He’s at the Hilton Hawaiian Village…”

“Nice,” Steve made a face. “I didn’t know cops made enough money that they could hole up at the fucking Hilton Hawaiian Village for weeks on end, living on room service, I’m guessing, if he hasn’t left his room.”

Danny shrugged. “I have no clue… but my friend says that the S&G Center here has tried to get him to stay with them at their retreat, but he threw them out of his room.”

Steve found himself approving of this guy already. The S&G Center could be douches about making people do what they thought was best for them in a cookie cutter way and he liked that this guy didn’t let them browbeat him into doing things their way instead of his.

When they got to Danny’s car, Steve held out his hand and with a loud sigh and obvious reluctance, Danny handed him the keys. Steve needing to drive had nothing to do with him being a Sentinel. It had everything to do with him being maybe more than a little OCD, and fuck it, he really hated how everyone else drove.

They got in the car, and Steve backed out, starting down the road, planning the most efficient route to the Hilton Hawaiian Village. “You never told me,” he said to Danny as the car purred under them, “what happened to this guy that he needed all this time to recover?”

Danny cleared his throat and made a face. “Uh, he came online?”

Steve whipped his head to glare at Danny. “Don’t be a wiseass,” he snapped.

“No, really,” Danny pursed his lips. “It’s what my friend said. He came online.” Steve’s senses confirmed that Danny was telling him the truth.

“He _worked_ with this kid?”

“Yup.”

“Is he some kind of CI? How old is this kid now? How did a little child save your friend’s life, if this happened some years ago? And what the hell’s a minor doing holed up in a hotel for weeks by himself?”

“He’s not a kid,” Danny blew out a long breath. “He’s around our age. He was a Philly PD beat cop at the same time as my friend.”

“ _What?_ ” Steve gave him another disbelieving look. “That’s impossible. If you don’t come online at puberty, you never come online at all.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought, too.”

“I mean, the whole coming online in some dramatic and traumatic fashion as an adult is a complete and utter myth. Absolutely debunked.”

“Uh-huh.”

“It’s ancient history! Before our species evolved to just have a smooth transition to being online at puberty, I mean, if anyone can call puberty a smooth transition,” yeah because Steve had definitely had a fun time going through puberty and coming online. “This kind of a thing was a myth even during the time of the Ancient Egyptians.”

“I know. And yet…” Danny threw up his hands.

“It’s impossible to come online as an adult, Danny.”

“I know that, but this happened a couple months ago so you were still running around the world too busy making terrorists shit in their pants at the sound of your name, but it was big news on the eastern seaboard.”

“What was?”

“I heard tell that people dropped down and were rolling on the ground in pain, anger, disappointment and betrayal. They were crippled, feeling emotions that weren’t theirs.”

“Guides can sometimes lose control and project,” Steve offered.

“In an area that was about a three-hundred-mile radius of Washington DC?” Danny raised an eyebrow. “It was some ‘next level Guide shit’. My friend’s words. Not mine.”

Steve frowned. “I’ve heard of Guides projecting their emotions like that when experiencing a violent and traumatic death.” Steve’s father hadn’t done that. He’d been in control of himself the whole time.

“Nah, not a death. A birth. Of a sort.”

“But that’s _not_ supposed to happen!” Steve insisted.

“I _know_ , Steven,” Danny rolled his eyes. “But that’s what my friend said. Some weird classified op that this guy went on, turned out to be something really rotten, apparently, and things went to hell and this guy came online and pretty much made everyone cry within a three-hundred-mile radius of where he was.”

“But…” Steve sucked on his lip. “That’s a myth. It’s so unbelievable that no one even makes movies about shit like this.”

“I hear you, Steven,” Danny agreed.

“Besides, to affect people in a three-hundred-mile radius of him? He’s got to be off the charts powerful.”

Danny shrugged, “I guess.”

“This guy is for real?” Steve had to ask again. “He came online and he’s like our age?”

“’S what my friend told me, and he wouldn’t make this shit up about someone he owed his life to.”

“Man,” Steve shook his head, trying to wrap his head around what Danny had told him. “This poor guy’s got to be _really_ fucked up in the head.”

“Coming from you, my friend, it really means a lot,” Danny intoned mock seriously, facetiously patting Steve’s arm.

Steve passed a car illegally and blew through a yellow light in retaliation for Danny’s sass, ignoring the grumbles that he heard. They got to the hotel and trekked through the huge hotel compound. Steve found himself getting distracted by traces of a scent that kept teasing his senses. It was the single _best_ thing he had ever smelled.

“You know which room he’s in?” Steve asked, forcing himself to ignore it. He was used to dialing down and ignoring everything except for the things that were necessary to the op at hand. That was a crucial part of their training. After all, no one needed a SEAL all zoned out because he smelled a perfume that reminded him of a loved one in the middle of a strike. That kind of bullshit got people killed and was frivolous. SEALs didn’t do frivolous bullshit.

“Rainbow Tower, penthouse.”

“Shiiiiit,” Steve grinned. “Fucked up or not, I like his style. I’d stay here over the S&G ‘retreat’ any day.”

“Right?” Danny agreed.

They found the tower building and took the elevator up to the penthouse floor. Again, there was that faint trace of that inviting scent in the elevator, and again, Steve ignored it. When they stepped out of the elevator, there were only two doors, one on each end of the hallway. Steve kept dialing down his sense of smell because whatever the hell it was that smelled so good, the scent was pretty strong right here in this hallway.

Danny led them to the correct door and began knocking on it, ignoring the Do Not Disturb sign that hung crookedly on the doorknob. “Agent DiNozzo!” he called out. “Agent DiNozzo! Gary Kowalcyzk of the Newark PD sent me.”

No answer.

“What’s he an agent of again?” Steve asked.

“No clue,” Danny shrugged. “It wasn’t important to my friend and I didn’t ask. All I know is he’s some kind of Fed and aren’t those always called agents?”

Steve shrugged. That sounded about right.

After a moment of silence while they waited, Steve raised an eyebrow. “I hear someone in there, but they haven’t moved a muscle,” he muttered.

“Is he sleeping?” Danny asked.

“Nah, I don’t think so. Heart rate’s not relaxed enough, and neither is their respiration.”

Danny sighed, shaking his head before he raised his hand again and began hammering on the door. “DiNozzo!” he yelled. “Don’t make me call Gary and sic him on you! Agent DiNozzo!”

Steve heard movement in the room, footsteps heading towards them. He debated letting Danny know that he could stop banging on the man’s door and yelling his name, but he thought it would be amusing to see Danny keep knocking until the guy opened the door. Steve could hear the guy’s heartrate rising, his blood flow was making that sound it that meant that his blood vessels were constricting. His blood pressure was rising, no doubt riled up by persistent early morning visitors. It would absolutely be hilarious to see how this situation unfolded.

Yup. He was an asshole. There was no doubt about it.

He could see the slight shadow pass over the peephole and knew that this Agent DiNozzo had given them a quick look. Danny’s ridiculous insistence on wearing a tie had to sell the fact they were law enforcement, especially to a Fed from the mainland. Danny was still pounding on the door and calling the man’s name, and Steve knew that he was smirking and that the guy, DiNozzo, was sure to have seen his expression. He forced himself to look serious when Danny turned to him, hand continuing to knock on the door, still threatening to call Gary. And then the door was flung open and Danny practically pounded on a mostly naked man’s chest before he managed to pull his arm back.

That smell, the one that Steve had detected earlier and had kept getting stronger? It was coming from the beautiful, almost-naked man answering the door.

“What the fuck is the matter with you people?” the man growled, a frown creasing his forehead. “It is ass o’clock in the morning! People are _sleeping_.”


	3. Chapter Three: Steve

**Chapter Three – Steve**

**_Honolulu, Hawaii_ **

[](https://i.imgur.com/io2k4ph.png)

_“What the fuck is the matter with you people?” the man growled, a frown creasing his forehead. “It is ass o’clock in the morning! People are **sleeping**.”_

“Other people might be sleeping but _he_ said you weren’t asleep,” Danny shrugged, gesturing at Steve with his thumb.

Angry green eyes turned to Steve, and he almost fell over. Yes, this man was probably a little on the skinny side, Steve could practically count his ribs, but he was broad-shouldered, slim hipped, his muscle tone was still fairly impressive everywhere that Steve could see, especially for a guy who had been vegging out for a few weeks. And Steve could see a lot of him. He was clad only in black boxer briefs and Steve had to force himself not to let his eyes roam over all that bared skin. Steve could see that his tan was fading, he was kind of pale and looked like he could use a day on the beach and a few hearty meals. The man’s short brown hair was in disarray and several days’ worth of stubble dotted his chin. He was a little rank, make no mistake, he’d probably not had a shower in quite a few days, but no matter how much Steve had dialed down his sense of smell, that irritatingly intriguing scent that had been teasing at him since they got here was this man standing in front of them, unapologetically grumpy as fuck, and baring so, so much skin.

“Typical,” the man snorted. “Spy on a man, why don’t you? Stupid Sentinels and their stupid senses.”

Danny couldn’t help the bark of laughter that escaped him, and Steve shoved him in response, making him almost fall over.

“So, who the fuck are you and why the hell do you think it’s OK to bang on somebody’s door at the crack of dawn?”

“a) It isn’t really the crack of dawn, it’s after noon in DC,” Danny brandished an index finger to make his first point, then put a second finger up, and Steve settled in, knowing the signs of an epic rant coming when he saw them, “and b) I’m Detective Danny Williams, and _this_ lug over here is Commander Steve McGarrett. We’re with the governor’s special task force and…”

“This task force of yours got a name?” the man interrupted. “What’s it called?”

“Umm… not yet?” Danny responded, thrown off his rant by the interruption, which had to be a first for him. As far as Steve could tell, nothing he’d said had ever thrown Danny off any of his rants. “We don’t have a name yet.”

“Kono liked ‘Strike Force’,” Steve supplied.

“ _Lame_ ,” another snort and green eyes rolled dramatically. Steve stared at the man’s chest, dotted lightly with brown hair. The man began scratching idly at his belly, and Steve’s eyes went down the trail of coarse hair that led down from his belly button, down into the snug boxer briefs, and Steve had to force himself not to keep staring at the bulge in the man’s underwear. Or start sniffing like he’d just snorted cocaine, because that scent coming from this man was incredible.

The man raised an eyebrow at Steve’s scrutiny, and rolled his eyes at him, turning around and heading back into the room, leaving his door wide open. Steve took the opportunity to appreciate his pert ass, perfectly encased in those tight boxer briefs.

“Hey, if it’s noon in DC, then it’s five o’clock somewhere, too, right?” he walked straight to a sideboard which held an assortment of full-sized bottles of alcohol. None of those tiny little mini-bar sized bottles for this man. He began pouring what looked to Steve to be expensive single malt whiskey into a none too clean glass.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Danny strode into the room, taking the glass away mid-pour.

DiNozzo made a sound of disgust, and he glared at Danny. “ _Seriously?”_

“It isn’t even eight in the morning and you’re not going to start drinking at this hour. Not on my watch!” Danny told him.

He sighed and quickly took a swig directly from the bottle. “I _was_ aiming for classy,” he gave Steve a sly grin. “But needs must…”

Danny took the bottle away from him, too, and DiNozzo sighed again.

“What do you want with me, Detective Williams?” DiNozzo’s low growl did things to make Steve’s pants tighter. He didn’t miss the fact that this agent had caught Danny’s name. “Why am I on your watch?”

“Look, I worked with Gary Kowalcyzk back in Newark and he asked me to look in on you, make sure you’re OK,” Danny tried.

“You can go now,” DiNozzo’s tone was facetious. “You can see that I’m very OK.”

“OK enough that you need to be drinking whiskey before eight AM?”

“You’re the ones that came knocking on my door,” DiNozzo pouted. “You a Jersey boy, then?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Steve snarked, and DiNozzo snorted at that, although this time with amusement.

“It’s the tie,” DiNozzo agreed.

“Stop dissing my damned tie!” Danny complained. “Like I told that lunk this morning,” Danny hiked a thumb in Steve’s direction, “my daughter Grace gave me this tie for Father’s Day and it’s my favorite goddamned tie. I have professional standards to maintain, even if I have to live on this godforsaken island!”

“Uh-huh,” DiNozzo nodded facetiously. “Well, if you’re going to keep the whiskey, I can switch to tequila. Ain’t no big thing…”

“No!” Danny stood in front of the bottles, blocking DiNozzo. “I swear to god, if I have to call Gary and let him know that you’re drinking at fucking eight AM, you will regret it.”

DiNozzo sighed. “If I promise I’ll wait until noon to start drinking will you go away and tell Gary I’m fine?” he asked.

“Lie,” Steve responded when Danny gave him a questioning look.

“Gary said that he got someone to hack the hotel security, and according to them, your card key was only used once. Once. When you got here and walked into the room. A _month_ ago, man,” Danny continued.

A month? Steve shook his head. He’d been in this room for an entire month? Yes, it was a penthouse, but still. A month was a long time to sequester themselves anywhere. Steve couldn’t help but frown at the guy.

“Fine, I will wait until noon Honolulu time to break into the alcohol, and then I will leave the room today. Will that work for you?”

Danny gave Steve another inquiring look. “Truth on the first part, lie on the second,” Steve told him. “He has no intention of leaving the room.”

“Life is truly not fun with a bunch of tattle tale Sentinels running around,” DiNozzo muttered under his breath. “And yes, I am aware that you can clearly hear me,” he raised his voice so Danny could hear him, too. “ _Why_ , exactly, are you bothering me again?” the question was directed at Steve this time.

Steve shrugged and pointed to Danny. “He made me do it.”

“Thanks, _partner_ ,” Danny rolled his eyes at Steve.

DiNozzo might be right, Steve thought to himself. He was being a little bit of a tattle tale Sentinel today. But it was worth it to make Danny get that pinched expression on his face.

“Look, Gary called me. He wanted me to make sure you’re OK because he says you’ve been through… a lot,” Danny was still speaking.

DiNozzo snorted with derision at that.

“And he owes you,” Danny’s eyes were serious now. “He _owes_ you, and he’s not going to let this go.”

“And where do you fit in?” DiNozzo crossed his arms.

“I owe Gary,” Danny’s voice was gentle. “Which means, by default, I also owe you.”

DiNozzo blew out a long, frustrated breath, and gave Steve a look. “And what about you? Do you owe Gary, too?”

“Nope,” Steve shook his head. “I’m just here because he’s my ride.” He couldn’t help but smirk at the annoyance on both Danny’s and DiNozzo’s face.

Danny sighed and gave DiNozzo a long look. “Look,” he started. “I’m not going to just leave you here to drink and hide away forever.”

“You’re not going to make me go out and go to the beach, are you?” DiNozzo made a face.

“Fuck, no. I hate the beach. All that sand, and it gets everywhere, and _ugh_ … just no,” Danny complained. “I can’t even stand the Jersey Shore, you think you’re gonna get me on a beach here? No fucking way.”

“Hey!” Steve had to object. “Just because you east coasters hate the beach…”

“I like the beach just fine,” DiNozzo interrupted him. “I’m just not really in the mood to kick back and relax, work on my tan, know what I mean.”

“You just want to sit here and mope,” Danny raised his eyebrows.

“I’m an adult. I took a leave of absence from work. I can do what I want.”

“It’s his party, he’ll cry if he wants to,” Steve couldn’t stop himself from adding, and the quirk of the man’s full lips up into a half smile was well worth Danny’s glare.

“Yeah, no,” Danny shook his head. “First, you’re going to go take a shower and get dressed. Because nobody needs to see you running around in your underwear.”

“I don’t know…” Steve interjected. “I’m not objecting to DiNozzo running around in his underwear.”

“Stop perving on Gary’s friend, Steven,” Danny shook his head. “DiNozzo... shower. Now. I don’t have to be a Sentinel to be able to smell you.”

“He does smell,” Steve agreed. And when DiNozzo gave him a hurt look, he shrugged. “I didn’t say I didn’t like how you smell.” Because god, did Steve like how the man smelled. Big time.

DiNozzo gave him a coy grin. “That’s better,” he winked.

“Shower and get dressed, and then you can flirt with my partner,” Danny gestured to the bedroom door.

Steve peeked in and saw a rumpled king-sized bed, and the bedroom was in the corner of the tower in such a way that two of the walls were made entirely of glass. The glass sliding doors were wide open on each wall, opening up to a lanai that looked like it wrapped around the penthouse. The view had to be spectacular from out there, Steve thought.

DiNozzo sighed.

“I’ve found, in my limited time of being Danny’s partner, that it’s easier to just do some of these things that he demands,” Steve advised DiNozzo. “Saves time, ultimately.”

“Thank you, Steven,” Danny looked surprised but pleased at Steve’s declaration.

“Fine,” DiNozzo pouted as he retreated into the bedroom, closing the door behind him. Danny and Steve walked through the glass sliding doors in the living room onto the lanai and stared at the amazing view. Waikiki beach was laid out in all its glory, and they could see Diamondhead clearly. The vast expanse of blue ocean was spread out before them.

“This is the life, huh?” Steve grinned at Danny.

“Fine, the view is pretty,” the smaller man said grudgingly. “I’ll give you that.”

Fifteen minutes later, DiNozzo walked out onto the lanai holding a mug and Steve could smell the fragrance that was Kona coffee clearly. He could detect no alcohol in the aroma of the drink, but there were hazelnut notes, and he could also clearly smell cream. DiNozzo was still barefoot, but he’d put on cargo shorts and a white t-shirt with NCIS on it in faded letters, the shirt looking soft and well worn. He’d even shaved. The man smelled like expensive citrus body wash and shampoo now, but that undertone of citrus in no way masked that incredible scent that kept assaulting Steve’s nostrils. The man was mouth wateringly delicious now that he was clean, dressed, and shaved.

“Happy now?” DiNozzo asked Danny.

“Much better,” Danny nodded. “Now put some shoes on and you’re coming with us.”

“ _What?_ ” Steve and DiNozzo both asked at the same time.

“You heard me,” Danny shrugged. “My human lie detector told me you’re not going to leave the room if we leave you, and I’m guessing you’ll wait until noon on the dot to break into the whiskey. Instead of doing that, today, you’re going to come to work with me.”

“It’s not take your daughter to work day, Danno,” Steve objected.

“He’s a federal agent,” Danny countered. “He can take care of himself. What agency are you with again?”

“NCIS. Duh,” DiNozzo gestured to his t-shirt, rolling his eyes. “Also, I’m nobody’s daughter.”

“What’s NCIS?” Danny asked.

“Naval Criminal Investigative Services,” Steve muttered.

“What? Wait, so you can arrest Super SEAL here if he goes off the reservation?” Danny pointed to Steve.

“I’m on a leave of absence, but other than that, yeah, I can arrest US Navy seamen and Marines, even SEALs,” DiNozzo nodded.

“Hot _damn_ ,” Danny rubbed his hands together.

“He can’t come to work with us, Danny,” Steve argued.

“Why not? He’s just going to come in to our yet unnamed task force headquarters,” Danny ignored the Guide who coughed a loud ‘ _lame_ ’ into his hand. “He can sit and hang out while we work. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“Oh, you’ve jinxed it now,” DiNozzo said matter of factly. “Fine. If it will stop you from nagging at me, I’ll go. One sec.”

When he came back, he’d put flip flops on and his badge and gun were clipped onto his belt, a short sleeved Hawaiian shirt put on over his t-shirt.

“See, that’s what a cop looks like on Hawaii,” Steve told Danny in an aside. “Notice the severe lack of tie.”

“I don’t know why he needs to be armed, though,” Danny frowned, ignoring the jab about his tie. “You’re just going to hang out at the office.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard _that_ one before,” DiNozzo rolled his eyes.

“If you’re concerned enough to be armed, shouldn’t you wear better footwear?” Danny complained.

“I’m on leave. You’re the one making me go to work with you,” DiNozzo groused. “I can wear flip flops if I want to.”

“You’re carrying your gun!”

“Just in case…”

“In case of what? A random shoot out popping out of nowhere on our way to the office?” Danny demanded.

“It’s been known to happen,” Steve piped up. “Good call.” He nodded approvingly at Tony.

“Shhh!” Danny shushed him. “OK, what if you needed to run? Flip flops aren’t going to do you any good then.”

Steve nodded his agreement, giving Danny that point.

“Why would I need to run?” Tony shrugged.

“What if you had to chase someone?” Danny suggested.

“I’m on leave. If someone makes a run for it, _I’m_ not going to be the one hoofing after them,” Tony rolled his eyes. “You guys better be doing that.”

“What if someone was chasing you?” Danny gave him that look that was his ‘I win because there is no way you can refute this point’ look.

“Then one of you assholes who made me come to work with them had better do something to stop that guy,” Tony. “Are we going or what? I can just go on back to bed if all we’re going to do is criticize my footwear. I’m good if we’re done here.”

“Nope,” Danny shook his head. “Let’s go.”

There was a yowl of protest and Steve jumped when a pale cat with interesting dark markings, spots and even rings on its fur, leapt onto DiNozzo’s shoulder, appearing as if from thin air.

“What the hell?” Danny jumped.

“Yeah, this is Felix. She doesn’t want to leave the room, either,” DiNozzo grumbled. “But if I have to go, she comes with me.”

“Why do you have a cat in a hotel room, dude?” Danny threw up his hands.

Steve stared at the animal, because she might look like a cat and act like a cat, but he couldn’t smell her or hear her heartbeat or other bodily functions at all. “She’s not a real cat.”

“Of course, she’s real,” DiNozzo shrugged. “I got her in the brouhaha that ended up with me running away from my ruined life. The one good thing left, right, Felix?”

“Huh?” Danny gave Steve a puzzled look.

“She’s his spirit animal,” Steve explained.

“What? I thought you Guide types keep your spirit animals on the super mystical magical plane or whatever?” Danny asked. “People the likes of myself never get to see them.”

“That’s what’s _supposed_ to happen,” DiNozzo rubbed his face with one hand, and scratched the cat’s head with undisguised affection. “But then again, apparently nothing goes the way it’s supposed to with me.”

Danny’s laughter surprised DiNozzo. “Fuck,” he shook his head, patting the Guide gently. “Well, come on then. We need to get to work.”

“Why did I even bother getting a leave of absence?” DiNozzo asked himself as they left the room.

“Did you actually name your spirit animal Felix, DiNozzo? Real clever name for a cat,” Steve teased. “Might as well have just called her ‘Cat’.”

“I will let her gouge your eyeball out,” DiNozzo snarked back. “Because she’s not your average housecat. Felix is a black-footed cat. She’s way bigger than a flesh and blood black-footed cat, but even though they’re tiny, they’re the most lethal cat in the world. Their kill rate is sixty percent. So don’t you mess with Felix.”

“I don’t know,” Steve smiled at the cat. “She’s awfully cute.”

“Yeah, until she’s digging her very sharp claws into your eyeballs,” DiNozzo rolled his eyes. “And if I’m going to be hanging around your secret clubhouse today, you should teach me the secret handshake before we get there and call me Tony. Or Very Special Agent DiNozzo. Your choice.”

“Good Italian name you got there,” Danny said approvingly, as they waited for the elevator.

“What is it with you people from the east coast and the whole Italian American thing?” Steve asked, not expecting an answer. “ _The Godfather_ , revered as it is, glorified criminals. You are aware of that, aren’t you?”

“ _Sacrilege_ ,” DiNozzo – Tony – told him. “It _humanizes_ criminals.”

“It’s the mob. It’s a criminal organization. It needed to be taken down,” Steve shrugged.

“I don’t disagree,” Tony gave him a grin. “But it did put out into the world how an Italian crime family supposedly looked like and behaved, and like the tail wagging the dog, Italian crime families began acting more like the stereotypes made famous by the movie. Which is actually helpful, if you think about it.”

“And how is that helpful?” Danny asked. “I won’t deny that I’m kind of partial to Sonny Corleone myself, and the movie is a masterpiece, but why was it helpful?”

“It became kind of a template that those wise guys thought they needed to follow,” Tony shrugged.

The elevator dinged as the doors opened, and Felix the black-footed cat yowled angrily.

“I hear you, Felix,” Tony petted the cat, and she purred, bumping her head against his jaw affectionately. “I don’t want to go, either,” he grumbled under his breath.

They trooped into the elevator and Steve pressed the button for the lobby. Tony gave one last longing look at his penthouse hallway before he sighed.

“And the template is helpful because…?” Danny asked.

“Makes it easier for a guy like me to infiltrate their organization and dismantle it from the inside,” Tony sniffed.

Steve gave Tony a second look. Was he saying that he’d gone undercover into a mob family? And then taken it down? Tony smirked at him, arching one eyebrow but not saying anything else. Danny looked deep in thought.

Tony squinted and pulled a pair of sunglasses on when they stepped out into the sun.

“You gonna be OK there, bruh?” Steve grinned at him. “There’s this thing called the sun. You might have forgotten what it looks like after a month in your room.”

Both Guide and cat scowled at him. “I’m melting,” Tony mimicked the Wicked Witch of the West, making Steve laugh.

“It’s what happens when you refuse to leave your room for a month,” Steve told him.

“I had a ton of fresh air, plenty of windows for sunlight, it was warm, I could smell the ocean, and the view was fabulous. Plus, there was room service,” he shrugged. “What’s not to like?” Felix mrowed her agreement.

Steve shook his head, grinning at the two of them.

They were walking to the hotel entrance, Tony’s flip flops slapping loudly on the sidewalk, when Danny snapped his fingers.

“Oh my god!” he pointed to Tony. “ _You’re_ the guy!”

“I’m a guy, sure,” Tony grinned. “And if anyone were to ask me, I’d have to take a wild guess that you and Steve here are _also_ guys.”

Steve snickered at that.

“No, no, no! You’re _the_ guy!” Danny was hitting Steve’s arm over and over in his excitement. “This is the guy that took down the Macaluso family in Philly!”

“It was a big deal I take it?” Steve quirked an eyebrow at Tony.

“The Macalusos were the biggest crime family outside of the big New York City gangs, at that time,” Danny was bristling with excitement. “I can’t believe I’m meeting the UC who took them down. Holy _shit_ , man!”

“Allegedly,” Tony shrugged, pushing his sunglasses further up his nose.

Danny gave Steve a look, requesting confirmation.

“He’s the guy,” Steve nodded, because nothing his senses could detect said otherwise.

“Stupid Sentinel senses,” Tony grumbled.

“Oh my god!” Danny enthused. “No wonder Gary owes you. I remember he told me he was in on that op but he wasn’t a major player at the time.”

Tony snorted and walked silently, petting the cat that was purring on his shoulder. Steve immediately wondered if Felix would get along with Sundance, his hawk. Sentinels’ spirit guides tended only to appear during conflicts or when their Sentinels were alone, and Sundance had always been an asset when Steve needed a stealthy eye in the sky, but he’d never enjoyed hanging around other spirit animals.

Steve told himself to stop thinking about it. It was bad enough that now, after his shower, Tony smelled even more amazing. He didn’t act the way a Guide was supposed to act and didn’t immediately start casing Steve up as an option to bond with, and Steve really liked that about him. Even if his ego was a little dinged by the fact that this man didn’t consider him bondmate material. Because even though Steve didn’t want or need a Guide, a guy wanted to be desired, if you knew what he meant. But the fact that Tony didn’t try to do things to make Steve happy, even though Steve was a Sentinel and Tony was a Guide, it was refreshing. Unbonded Guides at their age were few and far between, and usually were only unbonded after losing their Sentinels in some untimely way. And even though they had been bonded before, and had, Steve assumed, some kind of deep and intimate bond with their now-dead Sentinels, they always seemed eager to bond with the next unbonded Sentinel that came along. Steve found that readiness to move on and forget their past connection unappetizing. It made it feel like a transactional relationship rather than one based on trust and love. Guides could function perfectly well without being bonded. Steve knew that to be the truth.

Steve’s father had remained true to his Sentinel, Steve’s mother, after she died. He’d refused to bond with another until his own death, and he’d been a perfectly reasonable, productive member of society. There was no way Steve would find a Guide ready to bond right after the death of their Sentinel in any way attractive. And the other options of unbonded Guides were usually adolescents and no thank you, Steve was no pedophile. He preferred his sexual partners to be fully grown adults who were able to consent not just to the physical aspects of a Sentinel-Guide bonding, but that the nature of such bonds were that they were permanent, which was something Steve shied away from himself, much less expecting a mere child to understand the ramifications of a permanent bond with anyone. It was difficult to find a Guide who would understand that Steve wasn’t looking for a relationship, so Steve had never even looked twice at Guides for his recreational activities.

He made no bones about it. Steve liked sex, but he liked for it to be uncomplicated sex. He’d already decided long ago he didn’t want to bond with a Guide just because it was expected of him. He wanted what his parents had had, and what he saw of Sentinel-Guide relationships from his peers and contemporaries never seemed like they had the kind of depth that his parents’ bond had had. And every relationship he had ever attempted with a mundane had crashed and burned, probably because the lifestyle of a Navy SEAL was absolutely not conducive to making anyone in a relationship with them happy, and also because despite it all, Steve just wasn’t ready to settle down. Lack of commitment usually ended up being a recurring reason for his break ups. Hell, Steve hadn’t even attempted anything other than casual anonymous sex in at least three years. He couldn’t quite remember when it was he and Katherine had broken up but it was at least that long.

Although he should really stop thinking about relationships and sex because he had the feeling that if he assumed that Tony was interested in him because he was a Sentinel and Tony was a Guide, then Tony would gladly kick his ass and let his cat gouge his eyeballs out afterwards. He gave him a sideways glance, looking at Tony as they walked to Danny’s car, trying to ascertain if he was sensing anything amiss with Steve. Seemed like he wasn’t, though. Luckily.

He sure was pretty to look at, though. Too bad Steve wasn’t interested. He didn’t do Guides because he wasn’t interested in bonding with a Guide. Weird that he had to remind himself of this when he looked at Tony, though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is as far as I'm going to get posting the story today! I will post the final three chapters tomorrow, ok? I hope you guys are enjoying the story so far.
> 
> Just a couple of notes regarding black-footed cats (which is what Felix is):  
> * [Wiki entry on black-footed cats](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-footed_cat)  
> * [An awesome clip on black-footed cats](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl8o9PsJPAQ)
> 
> I'll have a couple more black-footed cat links in the end notes. Needless to say, I was absolutely taken by this animal. Just google black-footed cat images if you don't believe me. And you can see that RPD's artwork includes both Felix and Sundance! Wheee!
> 
> I'll see y'all tomorrow!


	4. Chapter Four: Tony

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 2 of posting! Here is chapter 4. Don’t forget all the spoiler type warnings for H50 s01e02 Ohana, k? Thanks for all the kudos and comments! I’ll reply when the story is posted. ❤️❤️❤️

**Chapter Four – Tony**

**_Honolulu, Hawaii_ **

[](https://i.imgur.com/io2k4ph.png)

In a strange and unexpected twist of fate, Tony found himself squished in the back seat of a silver two-door Camaro with Felix curled up in his lap instead of lying on his very comfortable king-sized bed in his luxurious penthouse suite at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. He’d rolled his eyes when they first got to the car and he realized that he would be stuffed into the back seat of a sports car.

“You couldn’t have driven a fucking black and white?” he’d complained.

“You’d prefer to be in the back seat of a black and white, caged in like a perp?” Danny asked.

“At least I’d have more leg room,” Tony grumbled, obediently crawling into the back seat after Felix. On the upside, he could feel Steve McGarrett’s intense gaze on his ass as he clambered into the car.

Danny carefully put the passenger seat back, ensuring that he didn’t smoosh Tony’s feet or anything like that. For such a demanding little guy, he was actually fairly considerate. Tony was used to his own personal comforts not being a priority, so sitting squished in the back seat of a sports car was something he would expect to happen to him. But he hadn’t expected the care that Danny was taking with him. Hell, he couldn’t think of anyone else who could have gotten him out of his penthouse suite the way Danny had.

“I thought you said that Danny was your ride?” Tony gave Steve a puzzled look when the Sentinel got into the driver’s seat.

“It’s my car,” Danny answered as he got into the passenger seat and closed the door. “But Steve can’t stand for anyone else to drive.”

Tony shook his head as the two began arguing about who was the better driver. He was still surprised that he’d agreed to come to work with the two men. Danny had been persuasive in an interesting mix of concern for and belligerence towards a complete stranger that had won him over. Plus, the Sentinel that he’d brought with him was quite the looker. Tony wondered why the good-looking asshole was unbonded.

He tried not to let his thoughts stray into the territory of bonding because that was still a sore point with him. It was bad enough that he had to come online in a way that had made a whole bunch of people cry all around him while Cade’s murderer managed to slip away like the snake in the grass that he was, but then he’d had to be contained at the DC S&G Center where they’d kept him in isolation for over a week, trying to figure out how the hell he had come online, and whether it was somehow a temporary ability that had been granted him after the trauma he had experienced. But here it was, a couple months later, and he was still online so if it was temporary, it wasn’t as short term as they had originally predicted.

Luckily for him, Kate’s sister had been able to spring him from solitary confinement at the S&G Center, working with JAG to get him released. He hadn’t committed a crime, and he had quickly learned how to contain and control his emotional projections and his absorption of other people’s thoughts and emotions, so there was no need to imprison him. It was an infringement of his personal freedom, and JAG and Cranston had made the case to free him.

Of course, when he’d tried to go to work, Vance and NCIS HR had come down on him. Apparently, NCIS didn’t allow unbonded Guides to be field agents. They were considered too fragile, and unbonded Guides were a commodity that couldn’t be disregarded. Tony was suddenly hugely popular, and the S&G Center kept sending him messages to attend multiple different meet and greets, to get him bonded and settled into life as an online Guide.

He had been in the process of suing NCIS for discrimination against unbonded Guides, especially since he had been the Senior Field Agent of the NCIS’s prestigious Major Case Response Team for years. He was as good or better than any team lead at NCIS, except of course for Gibbs. Being Gibbs’ second was like being a team lead anywhere else. Tony had also had years of law enforcement experience at three different police departments and he wasn’t chump change. Just because he had come online in a freak accident the likes of which no one had ever seen in several millenia didn’t mean that he had suddenly forgotten all of his knowledge or experience. He was not in any way fragile, and he saw no reason why he couldn’t go back to his old job and continue as if this online bullshit hadn’t happened.

Unfortunately, though, Gibbs had been the one to stand against him. Tony had been gaining ground in his suit against NCIS policies and they had been forced to back down from disallowing him to come back to work. But then Gibbs had turned up at his apartment one evening, and that was what Tony had needed to run away to Hawaii to get away from. The memory of Gibbs standing there, telling him that he didn’t think it was a good idea for Tony to come back to work as an unbonded Guide, even though Tony had been the one to have Gibbs’ back for over a decade. Gibbs had been the one to tell him that things weren’t the same anymore. Tony wasn’t the same anymore.

Tony wrenched his mind away from that final talk with his former boss. He hadn’t reacted well to Gibbs when he came to present his offer. It had been more of an ultimatum, and to say that that had upset Tony would have been an understatement. Tony might have had another little Guide fit which had then prompted his decision to take a leave of absence and just leave DC for a while. He needed to stop thinking about this because he didn’t want to start projecting again, not while he was in a car with two people that he had only just met. He didn’t need to make them start crying like he had Kate’s sister and a bunch of other people. And Gibbs that night. He’d felt the brunt of Tony’s out of control emotions with his words.

Tony took several deep breaths, Felix purring as she clambered onto his shoulder and began rubbing herself on his face, trying to show him all the love that she felt for him. It did help. Felix was something Tony had never ever experienced, a creature who loved him for who he was and who didn’t like it when he was sad. With her around, he hadn’t even felt lonely the entire time he had shut himself in his penthouse suite. They had had a nice time together.

When he felt more grounded, Felix mrowed softly and jumped back into his lap, curling up and bumping his hand with her head, begging him to scratch her behind her ears. Tony smiled down at her, petting the black-footed cat in a way that made her drool on him. How a spirit animal could drool on a person, Tony didn’t know, but he’d learned not to ask too many questions since nobody seemed to have any real answers for him.

“You OK there?” Danny’s voice broke into his thoughts.

“Huh?” Tony gave the detective a questioning look.

“You just looked… sad.”

“Not too much to be happy about, I guess,” Tony gave him a small smile.

“It’s a sunny day in Hawaii,” Steve gave it the three-syllable pronunciation of Ha-WAH-ee. “Things will feel better with a little sun, a little sea, and a whole lot of island hospitality.”

“You offering the hospitality, Commander?” Tony couldn’t help but wink at the man.

“Well, depends on what type of hospitality you want, Special Agent,” Steve winked back, making Tony blush a little. Shit, the man was attractive.

Danny’s huff of annoyance at their flirtation made Tony grin.

“As if the sea and the sun will make everything better,” Danny groused. “It became my whole problem when Rachel and Step-Stan brought Grace to live out here.”

Tony gave Steve a look.

“Don’t ask,” Steve mouthed at him.

“So no, Steven. The beach is awful. The sun is too bright, don’t underestimate the need for a good sunblock,” Danny directed the final sentence at Tony.

“And ties are too hot for this weather,” Steve added.

Tony grinned as the two men devolved into more affectionate bickering while Steve drove until Steve’s phone rang, interrupting them. Steve frowned at the caller ID.

“Yes, Governor,” he answered. He was silent, giving soft ‘m-hms’ until the call ended. He looked around before he executed a perfect bootleg turn, tires squealing and leaving black track marks. Tony stabilized himself in the back seat, glad that he had been subjected to years of Gibbs’ driving because shit like this didn’t faze him.

“You’re buying me new tires, you ass,” Danny complained.

Steve gave him a fond grin.

“Now tell me why we had to turn around, even if you can’t give me a good reason as to why you couldn’t have just done it legally and safely instead of in a way that could’ve killed someone and given me and Tony a heart attack.”

“Kidnapping victim's name is Roland Lowry,” Steve was all business now as they sped back in the direction they had come. “His car was T-boned an hour ago. Gunshots were exchanged, passengers were killed. This all happened in broad daylight.”

“Well, that seems like a pretty messy grab just to yank an ordinary guy off the streets,” Danny commented.

“This guy's not ordinary,” Steve’s expression was serious. “Lowry's ex-NSA. He used to have top-secret security clearance. Which means his abduction could be a serious national security threat.”

“Right,” Danny breathed. “What else did the governor say?”

“She said, ‘Find him’,” Steve shrugged.

Tony refrained from rolling his eyes. It sounded like something that the SecNav or Vance or even Gibbs might tell him. Thanks for stating the obvious, people. Although it was impressive that the Governor would give Steve a personal call to get him on the case. Maybe this special governor’s task force, unnamed as it may be, might be a force to reckon with.

“Call Chin Ho and Kono,” Steve told Danny, and Tony zoned out while the smaller man made calls, presumably to their other teammates.

“Hey man, I’m sorry we’re dragging you to a crime scene now,” Danny turned and apologized to him after he’d made the calls. “I’ll call you a cab to take you to the task force offices.”

“No worries,” Tony patted his gun and badge. “There was a reason I didn’t leave home without these.”

“Just don’t get chased by anyone,” Danny rolled his eyes at Tony’s completely impractical footwear.

Tony ignored the dig. “Hey, so how come the task force is still unnamed?” Tony asked.

“This is our second week,” Danny raised his eyebrow.

“For you and Steve to work together on this task force?”

“Yes, and also the second week of the task force. Period,” Danny clarified. “Steve came home after his dad was killed, and the governor gave him the task force to find the guy who did that, and other cases that she feels would be important.”

“Interesting,” Tony raised an eyebrow. “How’s local Honolulu PD taking it?”

“About what you’d expect, although not as bad as I would have expected it to be,” Danny shrugged.

“That’s the difference between New Jersey and Hawaii,” Steve shook his head. “We’re just nicer here.”

“Not that again…”

Tony grinned at their exchange. Even though they seemed to argue a lot, it was kind of nice. A comfortable and genial sort of arguing. Tony didn’t feel any bad intentions or deep hurt coming from either man as they continued to bicker. It was nice that they felt so comfortable with each other even though it was only their second week working together. Tony had used to feel that way with Gibbs. Once upon a time he’d felt at home with his former boss even though he’d been undercover at the time and Tony had tackled and arrested him all those years ago in Baltimore. But things changed. Tony hoped that Steve and Danny wouldn’t ever find themselves in the situation that Tony now found himself in, when after over a decade of being tethered, of knowing who he was and what his place was in the world, that had all come crashing down and he wasn’t who he used to be, and everyone he thought he’d known didn’t end up being who they claimed they were.

The loss of other people’s privacy was something that Tony mourned. There was a reason why people shouldn’t be able to pick out other people’s thoughts and emotions. If you could feel how a person felt towards you, then there was no mystery and worse, the things that you’d swept under the rug and ignored because surely you had to be wrong, those awful truths became unignorable. Instead they just smacked you in the face and laughed at your naivete. It was another reason that Tony had had to leave.

They got to the crime scene at the same time as an Asian man with broad shoulders and a chiseled bone structure, and a slender Asian woman with shoulder length dark hair.

“Hey, got your message,” the man told Steve and Danny.

“Who’s the pretty boy in the slippahs?” the woman asked. “And what’s with the cat?”

“Pretty boy is Special Agent Tony DiNozzo,” Steve told them. “Tony, Chin Ho Kelly and Kono Kalakaua are the other two members of the task force.”

Tony gave them both a nod in greeting. “I’m on leave so Felix and I will just stay on this side of the yellow tape, huh?”

“Sure I can’t call you a cab?” Danny offered again.

“I can wait,” Tony assured him. “Go. Work your case.”

“Good,” Steve gave him a curt nod. “Let’s start processing.”

Tony watched as the group moved towards the yellow crime scene tape, and with the declaration that they were with the governor’s task force, the foursome was allowed onto the scene. Tony could feel the anger towards the team… nope, not the team as a whole. Just the Asian man, Chin Ho. He tuned out the words that people were saying, instead tuning into their emotions. Yes, the HPD uniforms were angry with Chin in a way that made Tony want to twitch. Chin Ho Kelly carried himself with a righteous anger. He was innocent of whatever it was that the other HPD officers thought Kelly had done. Whatever it was that had earned him the ire of so many of the cops on the scene. Tony turned away, letting Felix nuzzle into his face and comfort him. He ignored the stares that he was getting, ignored the interest and the curiosity from people, and instead focused on centering himself again. Felix purred and batted his chin gently.

The truth was that Tony hated being a Guide. He hated that he could feel what other people were feeling, and he was strong enough that he could actually read not just their surface thoughts but even dig deep if he wanted to – consent and privacy, things that were important to him, had suddenly become something he had to struggle to maintain. How a Guide could continue to do this without feeling as if they were betraying everyone, Tony didn’t know. Yes, it would have been amazing to be able to tell whether, for instance, the Macaluso Capo had been suspicious of him or not. But to suddenly be thrust into a world where people he knew and loved couldn’t hide how they felt about him from him? That had been too much for him to bear.

It was easier when it came to complete strangers because he had no preconceived idea of what they might feel about him. Like this scenario right now – sure, Tony felt bad for Chin Ho Kelly for the negativity that the HPD guys were flinging at him without restraint, especially since he could tell for sure that Chin was innocent of whatever these others thought that he’d done. But he didn’t know Chin, had only met him this morning so while he felt bad about it, he didn’t feel responsible for any of it, which was a nice change. He just needed to stop allowing himself to soak up the negative vibes from folks and chill the fuck out. He also needed to stop empathizing with the poor guy because there were some really bad feelings flying around out here. Tony found that he was glad Steve and Danny seemed to have nothing but trust and faith in their beleaguered teammate.

He found a quiet spot not too far from Danny’s car, settling onto the curb, putting his arms behind him to balance and leaning back as he tipped his face up into the sunlight. Despite what Danny had said, it was nice to be in the sun. And Felix agreed, purring up a storm as she settled down, curling her little body up on his belly. They sat there, enjoying the sun and even though they weren’t right on the beach anymore, Tony could still smell salt in the air, reminding him that he wasn’t far from the ocean.

He was getting drowsy and about ready to ask Steve for the keys to the car so he could take a nap in the back seat when he felt someone brush by his arm, although they had done it gently enough so as to not to tip him onto his back. He opened his eyes and saw that it was Danny, with a glint in his eyes that meant that he’d thought about knocking Tony’s arm from under him and having him end up on his back on the ground, given how he had been sitting propped up by his arms. Tony picked up the mischievous glee that came from the man, and it absolutely hammered home how different things were here. Ziva would have done it on purpose, and yes it would have been mischievous, but it would have also been tainted with malice.

Tony forced his thoughts away from his old teammates and the truth of their attitude towards him. He wasn’t ready to face that yet. Instead he gave Danny a grin and a nod.

“Come on. We’re headed back to our headquarters,” Danny told him, holding out a hand to help him up.

Felix jumped onto Tony’s shoulder and Tony allowed himself to be pulled up. Since coming online, he’d tried hard not to touch people because that seemed to be the surefire way for him to actually pick up on what they were thinking. It was part of why the whole Stratton thing had been so terrible, because he’d picked up on the man’s thoughts about him and about Cade and EJ. He’d known that that was the man that had shot them all. But it wasn’t common for a Guide to be able to do that and most people didn’t usually refrain from touching a Guide, so Tony didn’t blame Danny for doing the decent thing and offering him a hand up. And even though Tony tried hard not to rifle through Danny’s thoughts, he couldn’t help but pick up on Danny’s concern about the case, and his love for his daughter and his worry for the circumstances that had brought him to Hawaii. It was a gross violation of Danny’s privacy, but Tony couldn’t stop it from happening. He bit back an apology, not because it went against Gibbs’ damned rules, but because he didn’t want the detective to have a bad impression of him.

“You looked like a cat, all comfortable and relaxed in the sun,” Danny remarked.

“There’s probably a reason why his spirit animal’s a cat,” Steve butted in as he ducked under the crime scene tape, coming towards the car.

Damn Sentinels and their damned hearings. “Black-footed cat,” Tony huffed. “Feral, not domesticated. Lethal.”

“And ridiculously cute,” Kono cooed.

“Let’s get going,” Steve gestured towards the car. “They’re bringing a witness for us to talk to.”

“The guy’s son,” Danny made a face. “Poor thing.”

They all got in their respective vehicles and headed out. When they got there and Steve parked the car, Tony decided he didn’t want to feel the anguish that this poor kid must be feeling, if he had been on the phone with his father while his car had been rammed, bodyguards shot to death, and his father then kidnapped. He wasn’t the best at blocking other people’s emotions yet and going from hanging out in his penthouse suite with only Felix for company and being bombarded by all these people’s emotions now was tiring him out.

“I’m going to go grab some coffee,” he told the guys.

Steve gave him a concerned look, but Tony didn’t really want to think about what it was Steve could detect of his emotions and state of mind based on his physical cues. He was out of practice with regulating his respiration and heartrate, having been away from Gibbs for so long.

“I’m happy to get a bunch for your team if you tell me what you like,” Tony avoided meeting Steve’s eyes, looking instead at Danny.

“Sure,” Danny didn’t question him even though he could see the man exchange a look with Steve. He rattled off his teammates’ coffee orders and Tony liked him already if they were on week two of working together and he already knew his teammates’ coffee preferences. Steve pointed out the diner he should go to for the best coffee close to the office, scoffing at the Starbucks that was right on the corner.

“You’re in Hawaii,” Steve sniffed. “None of that mainland coffee will do for us.”

“I’d disagree with him just on principle,” Danny added. “But I have to admit that the diner’s coffee is amazing, and hell of a lot cheaper, too. Oh, and if you haven’t tried them, you need to try those donut things they have.”

“Malasadas,” Steve rolled his eyes. “You already had one this morning, Danny.”

“You’re the one watching your girlish figure, Steven,” Danny shot back.

“Although they are delicious,” Steve admitted. “You should probably try one and don’t bring any for this guy here.”


	5. Chapter Five: Tony

**Chapter Five – Tony**

**_Honolulu, Hawaii_ **

[](https://i.imgur.com/io2k4ph.png)

Tony grinned at them before he set off. He was going to sit and drink his coffee on the patio where there were tables to kill some time and ensure that he would not be there to feel the emotions of a child who had witnessed the violent kidnapping of his own father. By the time he went back to the task force headquarters – jesus, they desperately needed a name for their team because Tony had only just met them this morning and he was already sick of thinking ‘governor’s task force’ in his head – the kidnap victim’s son had been taken home by his father’s girlfriend and Kono sent to escort them to ensure that the kidnappers didn’t target members of the family, and to have a presence there in case a ransom demand came in. Luckily, Kono liked her coffee sweet and creamy so Tony would have no trouble drinking what should’ve been her cup. He handed out coffee and malasadas to Steve, Danny and Chin, who had just come in.

“I can’t believe you’re eating a donut, Steven,” Danny ribbed him, watching as Steve took a bite of the malasada Tony had brought him. “After all the grief you gave me about it this morning. Something about bypass surgery?”

Steve didn’t say anything, focusing on chewing the tasty treat, but the look that he gave Tony was hot enough to melt him and make parts of his body wake up. Tony hadn’t felt any arousal since he’d come online. It was a boner killer to be able to know what everyone felt, especially the ones he was interested in bedding. But he didn’t mind so much Steve’s eyes on him, and even though there was a simmering anger within the man – something to do with the death of his father, Tony thought – he wasn’t drowning himself in fury. He hadn’t subsumed every other emotion known to man to the anger in his soul, not like some other Sentinels Tony could name. It was refreshing to know that a man could feel anger and loss without losing his entire self in it. Even though he was still mourning his father, Tony could easily pick up that Steve was fond of Danny, respected Chin, and he had a protectiveness about him that Tony already felt enveloped in.

“Oh, it’s like that, is it? You’ll eat a goddamned donut because a pretty Guide got it for you, but you’ll give _me_ a hard time about it. I get it now,” Danny rolled his eyes, giving Tony a knowing look.

Steve turned away from Tony, while Tony focused on his coffee cup and tried to hide his blush.

Chin was grinning at Steve who was still avoiding looking at Tony. “Anyhoo,” he shrugged. “Grabbed the video footage from a traffic cam near the crime scene. I'll mine it, see if there's anything on there that can help us identify the shooters.”

Steve nodded gratefully, happy to turn away from Danny’s teasing and focus on the case again. “Did you get in touch with the security company that Roland hired today?”

“Yeah, I spoke to the owner,” Chin nodded. “Turns out, Roland hired the bodyguards for an appointment he had this morning.”

“Where were they going?” Steve asked.

“Hickam Air Force Base.”

Danny frowned. “You know anyone at Hickam?”

Steve gave him a look before he wordlessly set off towards the exit.

Danny blew out a breath. “A stupid question. Of course,” he muttered facetiously as he went after his partner. “Hey, you want to come with?” he turned to Tony.

“I’m good,” Tony lifted his coffee. “I _am_ on leave, you know.”

Danny gave Chin a look. “Don’t worry,” the Asian man smiled. “I got him.”

It was interesting how Tony felt both Danny and Steve’s absence keenly. They had somehow been a stabilizing influence when they had pried him out of his nest. Chin gave him a small smile and nodded to Felix as if acknowledging a Guide’s spirit animal was normal for him. The easy acceptance that Tony could feel coming from the man, the absolute lack of judgement, immediately made Tony feel comfortable and welcome again. At the rate this was going, Tony would absolutely be glaring at Honolulu PD the next time he witnessed their blatant and unjustified prejudiced behavior towards the quiet Asian man.

Chin Ho was working on retrieving security feed and Tony was watching from his seat.

“Can I ask you a question?” Tony surprised himself with the question.

“Free country,” Chin gave him a gentle smile.

“Aren’t there Guides or Sentinels on the Honolulu PD?” Tony asked.

“What do you mean?” a frown creased his brow, and Tony found himself thinking that every member of Steve’s task force was beautiful in their own right.

“I mean that if I can tell you’re innocent of whatever they think you did and I don’t even know you,” Tony cleared his throat, feeling both his and Chin’s discomfort at the subject he was bringing up. “Then surely someone on HPD itself who did know you would certainly be able to do the same. They’d be able to stand up for you.”

Chin gave him a sad smile. “Steve’s father was a Guide,” he said, grief coloring his tone and Tony could almost taste it, the loss was so fresh. “He tried to stand up for me, but the department needed someone to blame and I was convenient.”

Tony frowned. He could feel both anger and acceptance coming from Chin. “That’s just wrong.”

“Uh-huh,” the man shrugged. “Thank you, though. I appreciate it.”

There was silence as Chin kept working and Tony sipped his coffee. Chin had a very zen approach to life and his calm was infecting Tony, soothing his own wild emotions. He could see why Steve asked this man to be on the task force, no matter what HPD thought of him. It was surprising to Tony that Chin wasn’t a Guide because he had that feel to him. Maybe he was more like Rachel Cranston, someone so in tune and accepting of themselves that it translated into an acceptance of others and situations outside their control. Tony would have to keep working on that before he could go back to see what might be left of his life, although he felt, in his heart, that maybe he no longer belonged in DC with Gibbs. He would have to figure out whether or not he wanted to stay with NCIS and fight for the right to continue being a field agent for an organization that didn’t think an unbonded Guide belonged in the field.

Tony sat in the big room, one eye on Felix as she prowled around the office, one eye on Chin who was quietly plugging away, patiently going through the traffic cam footage that he’d obtained. Finally, he got to where he needed to be. Tony shuffled over to stand next to the Asian man and they watched as a white van t-boned a dark SUV that looked more like a G-ride, one of those reinforced dark SUVs that the FBI tended to drive. Gunmen popped out of the white van and there began a short but effective shootout. But what was important was that one of the gunmen had been hit during the exchange and left there once Lowry had been kidnapped. The man began moving not long after, pulling himself up and walking out of the shot. It took Chin a few moments to find the man again, going down a path of some sort and walking into a building.

Chin immediately reached for his phone. Tony only heard his side of the call, but he knew it was to Steve. “Steve we've got a wounded runner injured in the gunfight. The tape shows he was hit in the grab and he went into the Kahiko on Kalia Road.”

He waited a moment, listening to Steve, then murmured his assent before he hung up. He opened his mouth to tell Tony to stay, but there was no way Tony was going to sit on his ass while a gunman was on the loose. He was on leave, he hadn’t resigned. He was still a cop in the marrow of his bones.

“I’m coming with you,” Tony told him firmly.

Chin gave Tony an appraising look before he nodded. A few minutes later, Tony found himself sitting behind the man on a huge motorcycle, a kind that he had never really seen before. It was a superbike of some sort and was a smooth ride. Felix was cradled in between their bodies, and Tony had his arms around Chin to ensure that neither he nor Felix fell off the bike. Somewhere along the way, they met up with Steve and Danny and Chin fell in line behind them, lights flashing on their way to the Kahiko.

When they arrived, Tony could feel the jealousy emanating from Steve when he saw Tony release Chin and swing his leg off the bike, Felix snuggled into the crook of his arm. The manager of the hotel was there to meet them, and Chin went with him while Steve glared at his retreating back.

Felix hopped down, padding silently towards Steve and rubbing her body on him before walking away, tail in the air as if it hadn’t happened. Steve gave Tony a look and Tony shrugged, but it had done the trick. Steve was no longer distracted by whatever he thought might have passed between Chin Ho and Tony.

Tony couldn’t remember if Felix had ever let anyone other than him touch her, never mind voluntarily rubbing herself on them like that. The black-footed cat gave him a withering look. No. Of course she hadn’t. But just because his cat liked a Sentinel didn’t mean that Tony was going to throw himself at the man’s feet, even if he was one of the most attractive men he had ever seen.

Tony couldn’t help but admire Steve in his form-fitting black t-shirt and cargo pants, combat boots on his feet, looking every inch the highly trained and skilled SEAL that he was. He found himself staring right into Steve’s hazel eyes, admiring the strong bones of his face. The man was ruggedly handsome, and Tony couldn’t drag his eyes away from him, and, given that Steve’s eyes were trained right on his, it seemed the SEAL had similar feelings towards Tony. Oh, Tony could feel his interest in him, would’ve been able to tell that even without the stupid Guide abilities.

“Here,” Danny interrupted their moment, smacking a Kevlar vest into Steve’s chest and more gently handing one to Tony. “I’m assuming you’re not going to wait in the car.”

Tony grinned at him. “It’s like you can read my mind.”

Danny gave Tony’s footwear an accusatory look.

“I’m still not chasing after anyone,” Tony assured him.

“I’ll make sure no one comes after you,” Steve declared.

“If he were anyone else, anyone _normal_ , that would be like an invitation to move in with him,” Danny rolled his eyes.

Steve shoved him and ended that discussion.

Tony found himself chuckling at that, as they all strapped bullet proof vests on. He threw his Hawaiian shirt into Danny’s trunk and double checked that his SIG Sauer was ready to go. Felix padded back over to him and followed closely as they headed into the building and towards the elevator bank.

“Hotel security cameras show he went up the elevator on the right,” Chin strode over to them.

“He was shot. Knew he couldn't go to the hospital. He's looking for a place to hide and heal,” Danny mused.

Tony saw Steve’s nostrils flare and he squinted at the elevator buttons. “I got blood,” the Sentinel reported, pulling out his gun. Tony and the other two men followed suit, unholstering their weapons. “He went up.”

Tony couldn’t see anything on the buttons, but he wasn’t the Sentinel with the Sentinel eyesight or the bloodhound nose. They pressed the button and the elevator dinged as the doors opened. All four of them and Felix crowded into the elevator, annoying muzak playing in the background.

“Hey,” Steve greeted the occupants of the elevator with a curt nod, a family consisting of a man, a woman and a little boy with a hippo floatie around him. “He’s on thirty-six.”

The family tried to leave when Steve began jabbing at the button for the thirty-sixth floor with the barrel of his gun, a button that even Tony with his non-Sentinel eyes could see had a smear of blood on it. The man and the woman exchanged a troubled look, grabbed their son and tried to get off the elevator but the doors closed before they could and they were trapped in the elevator with four armed men wearing Kevlar vests. Felix was yowling with amusement and Tony gave her a warning look.

There was a moment of absolute discomfort, although Tony could feel that Steve had absolutely no idea he was making the family uncomfortable with his open display of firearms. Danny cleared his throat sharply, giving the kid a significant look when he caught Steve’s eye. Instinctively, Danny, Chin and Tony had tried to conceal their drawn weapons from the little kid, but Steve hadn’t done so.

Steve frowned at the family. “Uh, we’re cops,” he finally said. “Don’t worry.” And his attention was back on his quarry and the mission at hand, again using the barrel of his sidearm – a SIG Sauer P226, Tony noticed, like a sibling to his own P228 – to impatiently jab at the already lit up ‘36’ button. Felix began chuffing with amusement again.

Danny rolled his eyes at Chin before he lowered himself to give the child a reassuring smile. “You like hippos?” he asked gently.

Wide eyed, the kid nodded wordlessly, eyes going from Danny’s face to Steve’s gun and then to Felix whose tail was silently swishing from side to side.

“I like hippos, too,” Danny continued. “I got a daughter... she loves hippos. Everybody likes hippos.”

The kid nodded again, although he did look more relieved.

“He’ll be OK,” Danny told the parents, who nodded, still looking concerned.

When the elevator stopped at their floor, the couple quickly hurried out, herding their son away from the dangerous men with the guns. The doors shut behind them and Steve again poked the button, multiple times, with the barrel of his gun. Danny, Chin and Tony automatically spread out into the space vacated by the family, Felix now rubbing her body on Tony’s bare legs.

“You have an amazing way with children,” Danny told Steve facetiously.

Steve gave Danny an honestly perplexed look. “What?” he asked.

It was as if he hadn’t even registered the child’s presence, at least not the ramifications of drawing his service weapon in front of a child like that. And given that Tony had absolutely no idea how to relate to children – they were his kryptonite, after all – it actually comforted him to meet someone who was even worse with kids than he was.

“Nothin’,” Danny rolled his eyes and sighed.

Tony caught Chin’s look and he couldn’t stop the snort of laughter that escaped him, which made Chin turn away and hide his face. Felix’s feline laughter was also obvious in the confined space. Steve just gave them all an impatient look.

They moved smoothly out of the elevator, guns drawn, and Steve followed his nose. “He’s on the roof,” he barked, and they clattered up the stairs, Steve leading the way, then Danny, Tony behind him and Chin taking the rear, watching their sixes. Once they got onto the roof, Tony had to stop himself from shuddering in reaction. This was not a rooftop in DC, and Kate wasn’t going to get killed up here. A hawk’s call from up even higher distracted him.

“Over there,” Steve pointed. “Sundance can see him. He’s not moving but everyone be careful.” Steve’s SEAL training came out because he unconsciously made battle signals with his hands as he spoke. Tony had to wonder what he had done in his life to make it so he actually understood Steve’s hand motions. He’d been around Gibbs way too long, obviously.

The hawk called again, getting Tony’s attention. It must be Steve’s spirit animal, Tony thought. Up high, watching over his domain like the protector that Steve was.

Tony started to move with them, but Steve gave him a glare. “You stay here and cover our sixes, just in case,” he told the Guide. “You’re on leave and I don’t want Danny to have to call his buddy to let him know we got you killed on our watch.”

Tony rolled his eyes, but it was true, this wasn’t his jurisdiction or his op. He nodded, falling back, agreeing to watch their sixes, but Felix went with Steve, Danny and Chin. The hawk flew in lazy circles and Tony saw Felix looking up into the sky, growling low in her throat. The hawk gave another piercing call, and Felix was doing the equivalent of a cat frown, yowling up at the bird. Steve turned and gave Tony a questioning look, and he had to shrug. He didn’t know what the hell was going on between Felix and Steve’s spirit animal – Sundance, if he caught the name correctly.

“Found him,” Tony heard the guys call out.

“Is he dead?”

“Not yet.”

Tony ambled over and saw Danny feeling the prone body for a pulse, confirming Steve’s claim that the man was still alive. Steve had probably heard the man’s heartbeat, not needing to put his hands on the perp. The unconscious man was laying in a pool of his own blood, though, and looked like he was in need of medical assistance, but they needed to talk to him before letting him get to the hospital.

Danny found a hose on the rooftop and began spraying water on the man to wake him up. With Felix back in his arms, Tony leaned against one of the structures on the roof and watched the interrogation, such as it was. First Danny tried to talk him into revealing where Roland Lowry was with no results, and then Steve took over, jamming the man’s finger into the bullet wound in his shoulder, coating the thumb with the man’s blood and pressing that against a notebook. He gave that to Chin to run through their databases, before turning his attention back to the man.

It somehow ended up with Steve hanging the man over the side of the building, asking his questions while the man struggled and yelled, and Danny was arguing with Steve over his methods. It was not the smoothest interrogation Tony had ever witnessed and he rolled his eyes at Felix who sighed dramatically in response. Yeah, these guys needed more work on their combined interrogation technique. Luckily Chin came back and interrupted them before Steve dropped the guy off the side of the roof to free his hands so he could punch Danny. Yeah, they definitely needed to understand how each other worked better before they could interrogate well as a team. If there was anything that Tony had learned from Gibbs, it was how to be patient and how to get into a person’s head during interrogation.

“Ladies...” Chin shook his head. “You can stop now. I got a fingerprint match off an Interpol database.”

Danny and Steve continued to bicker while Steve got the injured man up and back onto the roof. Chin cuffed the man’s hands behind his back as he rattled off what he’d found out about him. “The guy's name is Sergei Ivanovich. Serbian national with a rap sheet a mile long. He's part of a gang who pulled mostly bank jobs, jewelry heists. Smash and grab type stuff.”

Tony stayed silent while they discussed this. Steve told Chin to take Sergei back to the office and run a deep background on him, finding out when he got to the island and who his associates were. Try to track his moves since he arrived on the island while he and Danny went to Lowry’s house. They needed to figure out what it was the man had that was so valuable that these people had come from Serbia to kidnap him.

Danny was super apologetic to Tony, but he grinned and patted the man’s back. “Don’t worry, dude,” he grinned. “This is the most fun I’ve had in months, and nobody’s even taken a shot at me yet!”

Danny and Steve exchanged a look. “Yet?” Steve barked.

“It’s inevitable,” Tony shrugged. His entire career had gone that way, but especially the years at NCIS. Oh, the stories he could tell, but neither man was ready to hear about the time he got dragged down into the sewers by a serial killer, or the time he voluntarily shackled himself to a serial killer and staged a prison break to get information from him, or god forbid, the time that he caught the pneumonic plague from a letter to the office. Yeah. It was better that Tony didn’t talk about any of that, probably.

“You should go with Chin, then,” Steve decided.

“No worries,” Tony grinned at the Asian man who was frog-marching the Serbian national over to the exit. He decided not to bring up the possibility that the man could get free, grab his or Chin’s sidearms and shoot him with it, because yeah, just because it could happen didn’t mean he needed to put that into either Danny or Steve’s head. It wasn’t their fault that these things always happened to him and that he had learned to predict the worst thing that could happen and hopefully safeguard against it.

They waited for EMTs to treat the prisoner before they threw him in the back of a black and white and escorted it back to their headquarters. Steve and Danny had immediately left to go to Roland Lowry’s home in order to start figuring out what it was these men had been trying to steal, although Steve gave Tony another long, wordless look that just about melted Tony’s bones before he left.

“That’s how it is, huh?” Chin teased him, as he stood there and stared at Danny’s car until it was out of sight.

“I don’t know,” Tony blushed. “Maybe. I’m not really in the best place for any kind of complication.”

“Life is itself a complication,” Chin said philosophically.

Tony and Felix rode behind Chin on his superbike again on their way back to the office. Chin and a uniform escorted the Serbian to their version of an interrogation room and secured him in there. The uniform stood guard while Chin and Tony went back up to the main room to begin the background work. Tony ended up helping because he couldn’t just sit around and do nothing while Chin worked. He was able to log into Federal databases to help Chin, given his own security clearance, and together they worked through the records of arrivals to Hawaii. Tony wished that he had McGee’s facial recognition program at hand, because what the task force had access to was not as sophisticated as McGee’s own homegrown program. They needed to search through the databases with facial recognition, given that it was unlikely the Serbian criminal would have used his own name to gain access to the US and to Hawaii.

Chin took a moment to check in with Kono by phone to let her know what they had found out so far, and to ask her to try to speak to Evan, Roland Lowry’s son.

“Wow, she’s graduating from the Academy today?” Tony asked.

Chin gave him a proud smile. “Yes,” he nodded. “Going into the family business.”

“She’s family?”

“My cousin,” Chin grinned.

They worked quietly, digging through archives and isolating Serbian passports, trying to locate their perp. Steve and Danny came back with the news that Lowry had built an electronic skeleton key that could hack into and take control of all government networks and infrastructure, and it seemed to Tony as if they were more at peace with each other. They had been at each other’s throats earlier, after Steve hung the prisoner off the side of a building, but they had come to some kind of agreement and both were happy with the status quo again.

They were going through what he and Chin had found now, Chin giving him credit for the ease at which they were able to search Federal databases. Tony stood, silently petting Felix while Chin pulled up Sergei’s arrival information to display to his team. He also identified Drago Zankovic who had paid for the tickets, both of them using doctored Serbian passports.

“Let's go a little further back,” Steve was frowning thoughtfully at the screen. “Show me all Serbian passports in Hawaii in the last six months.”

“One sec,” Chin tapped the screen, pulling up an array of passport photos.

Danny stopped him as they scrolled through the photos. “Blow that one up.”

A blond woman appeared, and Tony didn’t know who she was.

“Nadia Lukovic,” Chin read out.

“AKA Natalie Reed,” Danny gasped. “Lowry’s girlfriend.”  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reminder that the case they’re working on was from Ohana, and the scene in the elevator was also only slightly modified from the episode itself. That scene made me LOL 😂


	6. Chapter Six: Tony

**Chapter Six – Tony**

**_Honolulu, Hawaii_ **

[](https://i.imgur.com/io2k4ph.png)

_“AKA Natalie Reed,” Danny gasped. “Lowry’s girlfriend.”_

They all grabbed their things and crowded into Danny’s car, Tony and Chin Ho squished in the back seat with Felix. Natalie Reed had apparently insinuated herself into Roland Lowry’s life as his girlfriend, and she was the one that they had sent Evan home with and who Kono was keeping an eye on. Steve put his phone on speaker and called Kono, not wanting to blindside her, but the moment Tony heard her voice, he felt anxiety and worry, and Kono’s attempt to calm herself despite it all, even though they were speaking through a cellphone connection. He shook his head, grabbing onto Steve’s shoulder, trying to tell him that something was wrong without speaking.

“Kono, am I on speaker?” Steve asked, nodding at Tony, signaling that he understood.

“No,” Kono replied.

“Natalie's working with the Serbs. We're on the way to her house. Where are you?”

“Yeah, everything’s great,” Kono said casually.

“Copy that,” Steve gave Chin a quick glance. “Just stay on the line as long as you can.”

Chin began calling for a priority trace, Kono gave them a heading to work with, and then the call cut off. Things sped up when Danny got a call from some guy named ‘Toast’ because the skeleton key had gone live and the Honolulu International Airport radar was now down. They figured out where they needed to go when a plane with no markings flew low over them, to an airfield used by a skydiving school. And then, for the second time that day, Tony found himself kitted out in a bulletproof vest, and the four of them had their guns drawn, sneaking up to a building. This time Chin was bringing up the rear, armed with a shotgun. There was a short discussion during which time Steve and Danny actually agreed on their approach and Tony and Chin exchanged roll-eyed glances, but it was a good plan.

They snuck up to the main door and Steve closed his eyes, focusing for a moment, probably picking out heartbeats and finding out their positions. Tony was familiar with this process given how long he’d worked for Gibbs. This time, though, he could feel the emotions of multiple individuals, including a scared child. They were in the right place.

Steve carefully peeked into a dirty window and apparently made eye contact with Kono. He nodded to Danny and flicked his eyes upwards, signaling that they should take the high ground. Danny ducked down to move to the other side of the double doors, and Tony tapped Steve, asking how many there were with gestures, using battle hand signals. Steve’s expression brightened at this and Tony watched intently as Steve indicated the number of people and where they were located in the building, including the fact that Kono and the other two prisoners were sitting in chairs where he could see them right on the main floor. Tony nodded and fell back, gun at the ready, while Steve and Danny stealthily climbed the ladders located conveniently to either side of the double doors. He and Chin stood together, waiting for the signal to storm into the building.

When the gunshots began, Chin barged in, shooting at the targets, the shotgun blasting away his targets, with Tony right beside him. He knew where everyone was, given Steve’s rundown, and he could feel their emotions as well, they were projecting anxiety and stress during this shootout, practically painting a target on themselves for someone like him. He picked them off, taking the ones that had their backs to them first, as they were shooting at Steve and Danny, still not yet aware that he and Chin were there. At one point, Steve leaped off the second floor walkway, grabbing hold of a chain dangling in the air, and swung his way down one-armed, shooting at gunmen who had Danny pinned down. Tony couldn’t help the spike of worry and arousal because hell, that move was sexy as fuck. But they got things under control fairly quickly.

The firefight was quick and bloody, the Serbians and their buyers completely unaware of the task force and Tony closing in on them, and given that they knew where everyone was, it was like shooting fish in a barrel. Kono had to struggle with Natalie, but she won that fight quickly and it all ended with her and Drago Zankovic in handcuffs, and the rest in various states of hurt. Tony helped to zip tie a bunch of them and search them for weapons, while they waited for backup and EMTs to arrive.

And when it was all said and done and they were adjourned back to the task force headquarters, poor Kono beat up all to hell and it was pretty late, Tony watched as the three men assembled, all dressed up, while Kono was in the ladies’ room, straightening herself out. Danny and Chin were in their HPD dress uniforms and Steve resplendent in his Navy dress blues, his ribbons on full display. Tony felt completely underdressed in his flip flops, t-shirt and shorts but that wasn’t to be helped. They needed to celebrate Kono’s graduation from the police academy, which she had unfortunately missed in all the uproar. Tony had considered begging off and grabbing a cab back to the hotel, but hell, he’d participated in the effort to rescue Kono, Lowry and his son. No matter that he was still on leave, no matter that he was an unbonded Guide. He’d been there and Kono had taken her own hard knocks like a trooper. Tony felt he should be there to honor her since she’d missed her graduation due to actually doing the work and saving two innocent lives. Even if he was underdressed, he wanted to be here to witness her official induction into Honolulu PD and Steve’s task force.

Steve gave Kono a Kel-Tec nine-millimeter to be her backup weapon, and he apologized for putting her in danger and told her that he thought of her as family and would protect her like he would his own family. Tony felt himself draw a deep breath at the sincerity and care that he could feel broadcasted by Steve. This man was going to do his best to care for this family that he was building. His team was his family.

Tony’s eyes burned with unshed tears. These were words that he would have loved to hear from Gibbs for all the years that he’d dedicated his life to the man and the work that they did, and he never did hear it. And here Steve was, week two of heading this team, and he truthfully already felt like his team members were his family. Tony couldn’t help but soak up all that love and care that Steve projected, even if it wasn’t directed at him. Hell, Danny and Chin Ho were also brimming with love and care and pride in the newly graduated young officer. Tony was sure that this team would make it, would become cohesive and well-oiled, would be what the governor had envisioned, in large part because they all cared so damned much. Tony was glad that he had decided to stay to witness this.

They all had gifts for her, Tony giving her his favorite k-bar.

“What kind of federal agent are you?” Kono asked, when he presented her with the knife, since he hadn’t had the time to go anywhere to purchase one. They deduced that he had been carrying it around in his cargo shorts all day.

“The kind who’s worked for a Marine for over a decade,” Tony smiled sadly. “It’s one of his rules. Always carry a knife.”

“Then I can’t take this, if it means you break the rule,” Kono was a sweetheart.

“Who says I’d be breaking a rule?” Tony brought a switchblade out of his pocket, showing off the blade before he slid it back, and Tony didn’t miss the interested gleam in Steve’s eye as he did that.

Danny rolled his eyes. “You and Steve deserve each other,” he grumbled.

They were solemn when Chin read out the oath and Kono repeated it after him, and afterwards, they all went out for sushi to celebrate, and Tony insisted on paying, given that he was the only one so shabbily dressed for such a momentous occasion. When Danny and Steve dropped him off at his hotel that night, to his surprise, Steve got out of the car, too.

“Nightcap?” the Sentinel asked him. “I’d like to buy you a drink if that’s alright?”

Tony gave him a long look. He knew that Steve was attracted to him, but it didn’t feel like a seduction. This offer of a drink was just that, an offer to buy him a drink. “OK,” he agreed slowly.

Steve’s smile was beautiful. He slammed the roof of the car with the palm of his hand, bending down to talk to Danny. “I’ll make my own way home, Danny,” he grinned.

“Go on, get out of here,” Danny got out of the passenger seat, coming around to the driver’s side. “Thanks for helping us out today,” Danny held his hand out to Tony again.

Tony smiled and took it, shaking the man’s hand. “You can come and grab me whenever,” he told the blond. “It was the most fun I’ve had in a long time.”

“I don’t even want to know what kind of life you’ve led before this if today was your idea of fun,” Danny shook his head. “Felix,” he nodded to the black-footed cat on Tony’s shoulder, and the cat mrowed at him politely. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Steven.”

“Sure, Danny,” Steve smiled at him.

Tony saw the glare Danny gave the Sentinel, and Tony felt that protectiveness wash through him. Danny was silently warning Steve not to hurt Tony, or else, and again, Tony hadn’t felt that kind of protectiveness in a long time. Possibly forever. This time Danny was trying to protect him against Steve, who had also extended a blanket of protectiveness over Tony. These two men who he had just met that very morning were already showing more care toward him than the members of his team that he had known for years had after what happened with Stratton and Cade and EJ. It was overwhelming and he had to force himself to stop thinking about it.

Finally, Danny drove away after giving Steve a final fierce glare and Tony and Steve walked into the entrance of the hotel.

“They have a pretty nice bar not far from your tower,” Steve told him, and Tony realized that he really had no idea where anything was in the hotel since he’d checked in and stayed in his room for a month. He finally looked around now and saw that it was a huge, sprawling complex with multiple pools and buildings with restaurants and bars. There were little maps available to show the visitors where everything was since the complex was so large. It was quite impressive.

Steve led him to a bar that was dark, music playing quietly in the background, and given the late hour and the fact that it was a weekday, it wasn’t particularly full of people. They grabbed a high table in a corner. Steve ordered a beer and Tony ordered his first scotch of the day. That was another weird thing for Tony that day, given that he had worked hard to remain drunk from sun up, way into the deep of the night as often as possible for the month that he’d stayed at this hotel, and here it was, past 2200 local time and he was only just having his first drink of the day.

“Thanks for joining me tonight,” Steve said after they had sat and stared at each other in awkward silence for a few minutes, both of them playing with their drinks to occupy their fingers.

“Least I could do,” Tony murmured. “It was time I stopped pickling my brain in my room all day and it was fun.”

Steve sighed. “It worries me that you thought today was fun,” he said softly. “And I’m pretty fucked up in what I think is fun.”

Tony had to grin at that comment.

“You want to tell me why it is that you felt the need to hide away for a whole month, I’m guessing, just drinking the days away?” Steve’s tone was gentle and his concern genuine and heartfelt.

Tony blew out a long breath. “It’s complicated,” he finally spoke, taking a sip of his drink.

“I have time,” Steve’s smile was sweet. His hazel eyes appeared almost dark blue in the dimly lit bar.

Tony gripped the glass. “I’m going to need to be a whole lot drunker than this to talk about it,” he shrugged, making to down his drink.

“How about not,” Steve put his hand on Tony’s, stopping him from lifting the glass.

“Why do you care anyway?” It was easy to fall back on defensiveness. Maybe he would be able to deflect, finish his drink and retreat to his room for another month or so.

“I don’t really know,” Steve answered, and his honesty took Tony by surprise. He was so used to everyone he knew hiding so much that this openness he was experiencing was almost like a drug. “But I do care. Not because I owe someone who owes you. Just because I spent the day with you and I like you.”

Tony blushed at that. Steve was one of the most direct people he had ever met. Gibbs prided himself on being that, but he wasn’t, not really. Tony had found that out the hard way.

He nodded, looking down and seeing that Steve was still grasping his hand. “I should tell you,” he had to clear his throat to make his voice work and when he continued, it was a low rumble. “I should tell you that I have some touch telepathy and I can read your thoughts if you’re touching me skin on skin. It’s really hard to block when there’s contact.”

“Copy that,” Steve tipped his head and gave Tony a thoughtful look, but he deliberately left his hand on Tony’s, giving his consent without words. Tony picked up his concern and his curiosity, and an overwhelming need to understand Tony, all of that coming from the man. There wasn’t a secret agenda behind it all. “Why don’t we start with something simple,” he suggested. “Why are you on leave? What I saw today was a more than competent field agent. Did you take a leave of absence, or did they put you on one?”

Tony sighed. “Both, I guess,” he shrugged. “NCIS has a policy on the books stating that unbonded Guides aren’t allowed to be field agents.”

“That’s fucking ridiculous,” Steve took his hand back to take a sip of his beer.

“Yeah?” Tony couldn’t help the hope in his heart. “They don’t have that here?”

“My dad was an HPD detective and a Guide until he died not too long ago,” Steve shrugged, his entire body sagging and Tony could feel the grief that Steve could barely contain. “My mom died when I was thirteen, and my dad remained unbonded after her death.”

“She was a Sentinel?”

Steve nodded.

“HPD didn’t say anything?”

“As far as I know, no,” Steve shook his head. “It’s rare to find an unbonded Guide, or one that loses their Sentinel and doesn’t bond again. But HPD valued him for the work that he did and didn’t discriminate against him for his status as a Guide, bonded or unbonded.”

Tony pursed his lips.

“Hell, my mom was a stay at home mom,” Steve smiled wistfully, eyes softening at the thought of his mother. “She might have been a Sentinel, but I remember her making us lunches to take to school and being there for all of my football games and practices. It never stopped her from dedicating her life to my sister and me.”

“Huh,” Tony had to think that one through. “So, you don’t have a problem working with unbonded Guides?”

“No,” Steve shook his head. “My dad would have kicked my ass if he ever felt that kind of prejudice coming from me. And you saw Danny and Chin and Kono. None of us gave a shit that you’re an unbonded Guide.”

“That’s really refreshing,” Tony breathed out.

“I can’t believe it’s legal for NCIS to have that policy on the books,” Steve frowned.

“I was fighting it, at first,” Tony found himself confessing. “I had a legal team and they had a great case. We were going to win. It’s absolutely discriminatory. Especially since I was a field agent for eleven years before this whole shit show happened. Which, it happened on the job, so cutting me loose would’ve given me so much ammunition for my suit. But then I stopped it.”

“What happened?” Steve asked. “Why did you stop suing NCIS?”

Tony couldn’t meet Steve’s sympathetic gaze. He turned away, shame going through him. “My boss…”

“The Marine with the rule about knives,” Steve prodded when Tony’s voice faltered.

“Yeah,” Tony cleared his throat. “Shit, I really wish I was drunker,” he muttered.

Steve’s hand came back onto his, radiating empathy, concern and protectiveness.

Tony took a deep breath, drawing strength from the empathy coming from the Sentinel. “He’s a Sentinel,” he finally said. “My boss. The Marine. Gibbs. Yeah, so he’s a Sentinel and his Guide died along with his daughter over twenty years ago. He’s unbonded. Like your father, he stayed true to his dead wife. Even though he married and divorced three times since, he couldn’t commit to them.”

Steve nodded encouragingly.

“He came to talk to me a month ago,” Tony whispered. “He told me he couldn’t work with an unbonded Guide.”

“That _bastard_ ,” Steve spat out.

“I never knew that about him before that night,” Tony shook his head. “But then he said, he didn’t want to lose me, because he hates change and I’m the best young agent he ever worked with. Blah blah blah. And then he offered to bond with me, so we could continue to work together. Even though he didn’t love me that way and would never love me that way.”

“Did he say that to your face?” Steve demanded.

“He didn’t have to,” Tony made a face and gestured to his head. “I could feel it.”

“Fuck,” Steve’s bottom lip stuck out in an angry pout. “That’s why you left.”

Tony nodded. “Even if I won my suit against NCIS and was allowed to remain a field agent, no one will work with me now. They all take their cues from Gibbs,” Tony couldn’t help the rush of hot tears burning his eyes. “One day, I’m getting offers from every agency, and turning down promotions because I loved my team. The next, I’m miraculously online and I become persona non grata. With everyone. Unless I bond with Gibbs even though he doesn’t want me or love me, and I don’t want him either.”

“I will strangle him with my bare hands if I ever meet this asshole,” Steve told him.

Tony smiled sadly. “I just didn’t want to face the fact that my life as an NCIS agent and my life in DC was over, so I booked a flight to somewhere far, far away, and somewhere I already had bad memories of. Which is why I ended up here.”

“Why the hell would you have bad memories of Hawaii?” Steve bristled. “It’s fucking paradise.”

“My dad left me here when I was twelve,” Tony chuckled bitterly at that. “He forgot me. His plans changed, he got on a plane and three days later, I’m practically being arrested for credit card fraud because I’m still in the room and charging room service and pay per view.”

Steve growled under his breath. “Well,” he blew out. “We’re going to have to give you some better memories of Hawaii.”

“Today was nice,” Tony grinned.

“You realize that you said it was a nice day and you got shot at and whatnot.”

“I’m fucked up,” Tony sighed. “What can I say.”

They sat in silence, sipping their drinks, and this time the silence was comfortable. Companionable.

“How come you aren’t bonded?” Tony blurted out.

Steve laughed softly. “Never found someone I wanted to bond with,” he answered, and again he was brutally honest. “Never found anyone I wanted to commit to. Had a couple of short-lived relationships with mundanes, stayed the hell away from unbonded Guides especially once I got older and they just keep getting younger and younger.” The shudder was genuine.

Tony had to laugh at that. “Yeah, the DC S&G Center were trying to set up these stupid meet and greets with unbonded Sentinels, and some of them were even our age,” he shook his head. “But I said no fucking way. I mean, what? Suddenly I can’t be trusted to take care of myself? I need to be bonded right away and even if it’s to some snot-nosed teenager, well, that’s all well and good?”

“Right?” Steve shook his head. “It’s like a meat market.”

“It’s distasteful,” Tony wrinkled his nose. “People should meet and get to know each other in a natural way. Pursue someone if there’s chemistry or a spark. Not give up on love. I mean, I don’t need dinner or chocolate or flowers or you know, the stuff that people think of as love and romance, but I’d like to stay open to the possibility of real love. One day. Not some manufactured bonding bullshit.”

“I always wondered how all these people, all these Sentinels and Guides could bond so young,” Steve agreed. “How can you love someone else when you don’t even know who you are as a person.”

“Your parents were bonded.”

“They met in college,” Steve smiled. “It wasn’t a setup. They bumped into each other in a hallway, and my dad asked my mom out, and they got to know each other. They fell in love and were inseparable after that.”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Tony murmured.

“They were happy, you know,” Steve’s smile was soft and sad. “They loved each other so much. I grew up in a house full of love and I refuse to bond just because people think that’s what I should do.”

“I hear you,” Tony commiserated. “I mean, one day I’m mundane and normal, and making my way through life with one-night stands because working for Gibbs doesn’t exactly give any of us time for a healthy relationship. The next day I’m a Guide and suddenly I’m too fragile to be allowed in society without being bonded to a Sentinel? And by the way, here’s five Sentinels for me to choose from. Let’s bond already!”

Steve snorted and Tony felt his empathy and understanding come through clearly. “I have no problems with one-night stands,” he grinned. “There were some good ones in there,” eyebrow raised in appreciation of memories of good sex.

They clinked drinks and drank to that. Tony was thinking about ordering a second drink when Steve distracted him with a question.

“So, what are you planning to do now?” he asked. “You can’t keep hiding in your room, as nice as it is. Besides, I don’t know what kind of salary a fed makes, but I’m guessing this place is making a dent in your savings.”

Tony grinned. “Trust fund,” he shrugged. “My mother’s side of the family was crazy rich. She had a secret trust fund that I didn’t come into until I was thirty, and it was way too late for my dad to steal that money, too. I can handle a few more months at my suite, no problem.”

Steve rolled his eyes.

“Small mercies,” Tony grinned.

“You still can’t just hide in your room forever,” Steve said gently.

“I know,” Tony nodded, feeling his eyes burn with tears again. “I know.”

“You have a place on my task force if you want it,” Steve’s offer was unexpected, but it was genuine and Tony had to rub his eyes to stop the tears from running down his face. “I liked what I saw today.”

“Even the flip flops?”

“Chances are, you _will_ probably have to chase someone if you join up, so I’d recommend better footwear than slippahs, bruh,” Steve smiled.

There was a short pause where Tony took the time to calm down a little. “Thank you,” he said, his voice hoarse.

“We’ll take you as you are. You don’t need to find some random Sentinel to bond with first.”

Tony nodded wordlessly. Maybe he could win the suit and remain with NCIS but be conscripted to Steve’s still lamely unnamed task force. That would work for him. He could be their hook into some of the federal databases and his security clearance would probably help in a lot of the background work that they needed to do. He’d seen how their cases would probably be varied and interesting. He could make a real difference here, too, continue in his chosen profession without having to compromise who he was. It was an attractive option, posed by an attractive man.

Once they finished their drinks, Steve left a couple of bills on the table to cover them, then he escorted Tony to the Rainbow Tower elevator banks.

“Thanks for the drink,” Tony said, suddenly feeling shy. “And for today. And everything else, you know…”

“I had a good day too, all told,” Steve smiled at him.

“I think I want to join your team,” Tony told him, making a split-second decision. “I just have to go get back my status as an NCIS field agent. I’ll work being transferred here and being seconded to your task force as a stipulation. And maybe by then you’ll have a proper name for the task force.”

Steve broke into a wide smile; his beauty was breathtaking. “I’ll put a call in to the Governor and she can help make your case against NCIS stronger. The name thing, we might have to work on.”

“You’ve got to get your priorities straight,” Tony chided him.

“I know what’s important,” Steve agreed, his eyes not leaving Tony’s face. Tony felt his face heat up in a blush. God _damn_. The man was good at riling him up.

“Hey, do you have any non-fraternization rules within your team?” What were Steve’s rules, vis a vis Rule 12?

Steve shook his head, slow and confident. “Nope.”

“That’s good to know,” Tony grinned.

“Besides, you’re not on my team yet,” the wink Steve gave him was saucy.

The elevator dinged as the doors opened and Tony strolled in, leaning against the door to prevent it from closing. He gave Steve a long look, up and down his lean and toned body. The black t-shirt was snug, and the hint of muscles underneath was mouthwatering. The elevator started beeping loudly in protest of Tony holding the doors open for too long.

“Maybe I should walk you to your door,” Steve offered, his voice low and husky.

“Maybe you should,” Tony smiled, watching Steve stride into the small space. He backed away and allowed the protesting doors to close, and the rest of the elevator ride to the top floor was made in silent anticipation, Tony blushing every time Steve’s eyes met his, hot and aroused. When they made it to Tony’s door, still with the Do Not Disturb hanging on the doorknob, Tony unlocked it with his card key and Felix went running into the room. “Hey Steve?”

“What?”

“Have you ever had casual sex with a Guide before?” Tony asked.

The smile bloomed on Steve’s face. “No,” he husked. “No, I haven’t.”

“Do you want to?”

Steve gave him a long, heated look. “Yeah,” he nodded. “I really do.”

“Come in, then,” Tony walked in and held the door open for the Sentinel.

Steve walked past him, his gaze locked with Tony’s, his pupils dilated with arousal and desire. Tony didn’t fight the rush of heat that went through his body this time. He’d never had casual sex with a Sentinel before, either, but for Steve he would absolutely give it a shot.

Not looking away from Steve’s eyes, Tony shut the door behind them, and quietly but decisively turned the lock.

[](https://i.imgur.com/Coi4OE4.png)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of the story! I hope y'all enjoyed it! Thanks so much for the kudos and all the lovely comments. You guys are the best. I have to post the story tonight to fulfill the challenge, but I'll come back and write out proper end notes for you guys tomorrow when I have more time. Love y'alls!! ❤️❤️❤️💋💋💋

**Author's Note:**

> END NOTES: 16 OCT 2020
> 
> Finally, here are my end notes. I’m so behind in replying to comments, but I will get to all of them. I promise. It’s been a busy time, I started a new job that keeps me very busy and sucks a lot of my brainpower so it’s been hard to find the time to actually write. And prior to that I was unemployed for a few months. 2020, man. It’s already been such a challenging year for so many people. I hope that you are all safe and healthy, take care of yourselves.
> 
> The music I listened to was pretty important for this song. The two main songs were [Bohemian Rhapsody](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojRj2JK5oCI) covered by Pentatonix and [Cheerleader](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P95_pCbCPZw) covered by Pentatonix. The title of the story is a line from Bohemian Rhapsody. Bohemian Rhapsody was especially during the beginning of the story, but Cheerleader helped me to get Tony back to a good place. The other songs were:  
> * [Wheels](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rVE5key9lA) (Fink) – this song was featured at the end of s09e01 Nature of the Beast.  
> * [Bohemian Rhapsody](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ9rUzIMcZQ) (Queen)
> 
> Here are the links to the scripts of the 2 episodes that I based this story around:  
> * [NCIS s09e01 The Nature of the Beast](https://subslikescript.com/series/NCIS-364845/season-9/episode-1-Nature_of_the_Beast)  
> * [Hawaii 5-0 s01e02 Ohana](https://subslikescript.com/series/Hawaii_Five-0-1600194/season-1/episode-2-Ohana)
> 
> And here are links to some reference information:  
> * [Black-footed Cat wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-footed_cat) page  
> * [The Deadliest Cat on the Planet](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl8o9PsJPAQ) \- an enlightening video on real-life Felix  
> * [A Wildlife Wonder Black-footed cat video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxFGkfYeUeA)  
> * [Africa’s Smallest Wild Cat](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUU2mS0o870) \- yet another video about Black-footed cats  
> * [Bootlet Turn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootleg_turn) \- what you call a move that involves spinning the car 180 degrees and going back in the direction you came without stopping the car  
> * [ Chin Ho Kelly motorbike (Lito SORA Electric Superbike)](http://www.bikebound.com/2016/08/12/motorcycle-on-hawaii-five-o/)  
> * [Gray hawk calls](https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Gray_Hawk/sounds) \- what Sundance sounds like  
> * [Sonny Corleone wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonny_Corleone) \- In Chapter 3 where Danny says he’s partial to Sonny, that little joke made me giggle because Scott Caan is James Caan’s son and James Caan played Sonny Corleone 
> 
> This story was for the 2020 [NCIS Big Bang challenge](https://ncis-bang.livejournal.com/63350.html)! My beautiful friend [Red_Pink_Dots](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Red_Pink_Dots/pseuds/Red_Pink_Dots) 💋💋💋 selected my summary and made me such amazing artwork for it! Go check out her [artwork master post](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26949961) and shower her with all the love!!!! Thank you, my Elton. Je t’aime, ma tres chere amie. ❤️❤️❤️❤️
> 
> I’m infinitely grateful to [jesco0307](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jesco0307/pseuds/jesco0307) for all her help in betaing this story. You always make everything better. Thank you. ❤️❤️ All remaining errors are my own.
> 
> I will be posting a Tony/Gibbs story (a short and smutty one) on Sunday as part of the 2020 [NCIS Big Bang challenge](https://ncis-bang.livejournal.com/63350.html) so I hope I’ll see you then! This story also fulfills [Challenge 20: Sentinel/Guide AU](https://whatif-au.livejournal.com/52863.html) of the [What If Community](https://whatif-au.livejournal.com/) on LiveJournal.  
> And as always, huge thanks go to [Jacie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jacie/pseuds/Jacie) for organizing this challenge. This is my fifth year participating in this challenge and it’s always been such a wonderful experience, thanks to Jacie. ❤️
> 
> Thanks so much for all your support, kudos, comments and bookmarks. You guys are awesome. I love you all! Stay safe 
> 
> ❤️❤️❤️  
> -j

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Art for (No) Escape from Reality by jane_x80](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26949961) by [Red_Pink_Dots](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Red_Pink_Dots/pseuds/Red_Pink_Dots)




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